A/HRC/10/44 page 7 26. On 24 October 2008, on the occasion of the presentation of his report to the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur issued a statement shedding light on the two key themes in his report, namely the protection against torture of persons with disabilities, and solitary confinement. In the same statement, he also deplored that torture was still a frequent or even standard practice in many countries and called on States to replace the paradigm of opacity reigning in many detention facilities with one of transparency, by allowing independent monitoring of the places where persons are deprived of their liberty. 27. On 9 December 2008, on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, together with other special procedures mandate holders, he issued a joint statement entitled “It is my right” to call upon all to intensify efforts to realize the promise of dignity, justice and equality for all contained in the Declaration. 28. On 10 December 2008, on the occasion of the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights by the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur, together with 35 other mandate holders, issued a press release entitled “Economic, social and cultural rights: legal entitlements rather than charity”. III. THE DEATH PENALTY IN LIGHT OF THE PROHIBITION OF CRUEL, INHUMAN AND DEGRADING PUNISHMENT 29. During the interactive dialogue on the report of the Special Rapporteur (A/63/175) before the General Assembly, the representative of France, on behalf of the European Union, asked whether or not the death penalty was compatible with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment under international law in the present section, the Special Rapporteur seeks to explore different angles of this issue on the basis of political and legal trends and the jurisprudence of a variety of international, regional and monitoring bodies. A. Trend towards the abolition of capital punishment 30. To date, the death penalty has been primarily addressed in relation to the right to life. This is not surprising, as capital punishment has been regulated in international treaty law as an explicit exception to the right to life. Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950 stipulates only one condition for capital punishment to be in conformity with the right to life, namely that the accused is sentenced by a court following his (or her) conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is more demanding; four of the six paragraphs of article 6 dealing with the right to life are devoted to capital punishment. The death penalty can only be carried out pursuant to a final judgement of a competent court, arrived at in accordance with the minimum guarantees of a fair trial and other provisions of the Covenant; it can only be applied for the most serious crimes, in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime; it should not be applied for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age; it should not be carried out on pregnant women; and anyone sentenced to death should have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. In addition, article 6 (2) and (6) clearly convey the message that the Covenant promoted the abolition of capital punishment and that abolitionist States parties are