A/HRC/34/54/Add.3 407. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government of Saudi Arabia for its reply, dated 28 July 2016, to the present communication. 408. However, the Special Rapporteur regrets that the Government has to date not submitted a substantive reply to the allegations contained therein, other than its initial request for an extension. The Special Rapporteur hence finds that the Government, in its reply, does not sufficiently address the concerns, legal obligations and questions raised in the initial communication, which prompts him to conclude that the Government fails to fully and expeditiously cooperate with the mandate issued by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 25/13. 409. In the absence of information to the contrary, the Special Rapporteur concludes that there is substance in the allegations presented in the initial communication, available via the link above, and is therefore of the view that the Government, by seeking to execute the death penalty of Mr. al-Zaher, Mr. al-Nir. and Mr. al-Marhoon for offenses that do not reach the threshold of “the most serious crimes” and that were committed while they were children, has violated their rights to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (other ill-treatment) under articles 1, 2, and 16 of the Convention against Torture (CAT). Additionally, by applying prolonged solitary confinement to Mr. al-Zaher, a juvenile offender, and further invoking statements made by him as a result of torture as evidence in his trial, has violated his right to be free from torture or other illtreatment as well as the exclusionary rule under articles 1, 2, 15 and 16 of the CAT. 410. As observed by the Special Rapporteur in his 2012 report to the General Assembly (A/67/279), there is evidence of an evolving standard within international bodies and a robust State practice to frame the debate about the legality of the death penalty within the context of the fundamental concepts of human dignity and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This evolving standard, along with the resulting illegality of the death penalty under such prohibition, is developing into a norm of customary law, if it has not already done so (para. 74). Even if this customary norm is still under way, the Special Rapporteur considers the most conditions under which capital punishment is actually applied renders the punishment tantamount to torture and that under many other, less severe conditions, it still amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (para.75). The Special Rapporteur emphasizes that the execution of persons who committed their crimes while they were under 18 years of age is per se a violation of an existing norm of customary international law (para. 64). Furthermore, any judgment imposing the death sentence and execution of juvenile offenders amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, which is prohibited inter alia in the CAT, and violate the Government’s obligation under article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to refrain from imposing the death penalty for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age. 411. Regarding the application of solitary confinement to Mr. al-Zaher in Al-Ha’ir prison, in his interim report to the General Assembly of 5 August 2011 (A/66/268), the Special Rapporteur defined solitary confinement, in accordance with the Istanbul Statement on the Use and Effects of Solitary Confinement, as the physical and social isolation of individuals who are confined in their cells for 22 to 24 hours a day. He observed that while solitary confinement for short periods of time may be justified under certain circumstances, with adequate and effective safeguards in place, the use of prolonged (in excess of 15 days) or indefinite solitary confinement may never constitute a legitimate instrument of the State, as it causes severe mental and physical pain or suffering, a point which has been reiterated in paragraph 28 of the General Assembly resolution 68/156: prolonged or indefinite solitary confinement runs afoul of the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or 75