extradition without assurances would not violate Canada's human rights obligations. conditions under which he is held while his appeals with respect to the death penalty are outstanding. 9.2 With regard to the admissibility of the communication, the State party once more reaffirms that the communication should be declared inadmissible ratione materiae because extradition per se is beyond the scope of the Covenant. A review of the travaux préparatoires reveals that the drafters of the Covenant specifically considered and rejected a proposal to deal with extradition in the Covenant. In the light of the negotiating history of the Covenant, the State party submits that: 10.2 With regard to the imposition of the death penalty in the United States, the State party recalls that article 6 of the Covenant did not abolish capital punishment under international law: "In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, the sentence of death may still be imposed for the most serious crimes in accordance with law in force at the time of the commission of the crime, not contrary to the provisions of the Covenant and not contrary to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The death penalty can only be carried out pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent court. It may be that Canada would be in violation of the Covenant if it extradited a person to face the possible imposition of the death penalty where it was reasonably foreseeable that the requesting State would impose the death penalty under circumstances which would violate article 6. That is, it may be that an extraditing State would be violating the Covenant to return a fugitive to a State which imposed the death penalty for other than the most serious crimes, or for actions which are not contrary to a law in force at the time of commission, or which carried out the death penalty in the absence of or contrary to the final judgement of a competent court. Such are not the facts here ... Ng did not place any evidence before the Canadian courts, before the Minister of Justice or before the Committee that would suggest that the United States was acting contrary to the stringent criteria established by article 6 when it sought his extradition from Canada ... The Government of Canada, in the person of the Minister of Justice, was satisfied at the time the order of surrender was issued that if Ng is convicted and executed in the State of California, this will be within the conditions expressly prescribed by article 6 of the Covenant". "... a decision to extend the Covenant to extradition treaties or to individual decisions pursuant thereto would stretch the principles governing the interpretation of human rights instruments in unreasonable and unacceptable ways. It would be unreasonable because the principles of interpretation which recognize that human rights instruments are living documents and that human rights evolve over time cannot be employed in the face of express limits to the application of a given document. The absence of extradition from the articles of the Covenant when read with the intention of the drafters must be taken as an express limitation". 9.3 The State party further contends that Mr. Ng has not submitted any evidence that would suggest that he was a victim of any violation in Canada of rights set forth in the Covenant. In this context, the State party notes that the author merely claims that his extradition to the United States was in violation of the Covenant because he faces charges in the United States which may lead to his being sentenced to death if found guilty. The State party submits that it satisfied itself that the foreseeable treatment of Mr. Ng in the United States would not violate his rights under the Covenant. 10.1 On the merits, the State party stresses that Mr. Ng enjoyed a full hearing on all matters concerning his extradition to face the death penalty. 10.3 Finally, the State party observes that it is "in a difficult position attempting to defend the criminal justice system of the United States before the Committee. It contends that the Optional Protocol process was never intended to place a State in the position of having to defend the laws or practices of another State before the Committee." "If it can be said that the Covenant applies to extradition at all ... an extraditing State could be said to be in violation of the Covenant only where it returned a fugitive to certain or foreseeable treatment or punishment, or to judicial procedures which in themselves would be a violation of the Covenant." 10.4 With respect to the issue of whether the death penalty violates article 7 of the Covenant, the State party submits that: In the present case, the State party submits that since Mr. Ng's trial has not yet begun, it was not reasonably foreseeable that he would be held in conditions of incarceration that would violate rights under the Covenant or that he would in fact be put to death. The State party points out that if convicted and sentenced to death, Mr. Ng is entitled to many avenues of appeal in the United States and that he can petition for clemency. Furthermore, he is entitled to challenge in the courts of the United States the "... article 7 cannot be read or interpreted without reference to article 6. The Covenant must be read as a whole and its articles as being in harmony ... It may be that certain forms of execution are contrary to article 7. Torturing a person to death would seem to fall into this category, as torture is a violation of article 7. Other forms of execution may be in violation of the Covenant because they are cruel, inhuman or degrading. However, as the death penalty is permitted within the narrow 99