A/67/279 50. In addition, death row prisoners constantly face unimaginable anxiety over their own imminent death. Additional circumstances, including lack of notice as to the date of the execution, public executions and mistakes in administering the execution increase the mental trauma of persons sentenced to death. Numerous scholars have documented the severe mental trauma associated with death sentences. 34 The anxiety and foreknowledge of death affect the mental integrity of a person sentenced to death and can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. 51. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on torture has previously given rise to the question of whether the psychological effect of uncertainty may be equated with severe mental suffering, and whether this situation is reconcilable with the required respect for human dignity and physical and mental integrity (E/CN.4/1988/17, para. 47). The Committee against Torture has addressed the conditions of detention for those on death row, which may involve cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment not only as a result of physical circumstances but as a consequence of the mental anguish caused by spending an excessive length of time there (CAT/C/ZMB/CO/2, para. 19). The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has acknowledged the mere possibility that the death penalty can be applied during de facto abolition threatens the accused for years, and is a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (E/CN.4/2006/53/Add.4, para. 35; also (A/HRC/8/3/Add.3, para. 76). The Inter-American Court in the Hilaire case 35 concluded that the victims lived under constant threat that they may be taken to be hanged at any moment and that the procedures leading up to death by hanging terrorized and depressed the prisoners. The Court found that the prospect of the prisoners being taken from their cells and hanged at any moment or compelled to live under circumstances that impinged on the physical and psychological integrity constituted cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In the United States of America, the Supreme Court of California found that the process of carrying out a verdict of death is so degrading to the human spirit as to constitute psychological torture. 36 The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe has recognized in particular the impact on mental integrity that a death sentence may have. 37 Finally, one of the reasons United States Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan gave for his conclusion that capital punishment was per se unconstitutional was that mental pain was an inseparable part of the practice of punishing criminals by death, for the prospect of pending executions exacted a frightful toll during the inevitable long wait between the imposition of sentence and the actual infliction of death. 38 Rights of families of persons sentenced to death 52. In relation to the enforcement of the death penalty, the Human Rights Committee has recommended that families of death row inmates be given __________________ 34 35 36 37 38 12-45812 For example, William Schabas, “Developments in Criminal Law and Justice: Execution delayed, execution denied”, Criminal Law Forum, vol. 5, No. 1 (1994). Also see “Mental suffering under sentence of death: a cruel and unusual punishment”, Iowa Law Review, No. 57 (1972). Judgement of 21 June 2002 in Hilaire, Constantine, Benjamin et al. v. Trinidad and Tobago, Series C, No. 94, paras. 168 and 169. Supreme Court of California in People v. Anderson, 6 Cal.3d 628, 649 (1972). Catholic Commissioner for Justice and Peace v. Attorney General (see note 28). United States Supreme Court, Judgement of 29 June 1972 in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 at 288 (Brennan dissent). 13