death_penalty_new.qxd 02-08-27 12:57 Page 13 OTHER INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS AND INSTRUMENTS the offence is contrary to customary international law18. The prohibition on the execution of pregnant women was reaffirmed by the most recent Resolution of the UN Commission on Human Rights. The ECOSOC Guidelines extend this restriction to include new mothers. Pardon/Commutation Article 6(4) provides that anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. This principle has been reaffirmed by the General Comment of the UN Human Rights Committee, the ECOSOC Safeguards and the most recent resolution of the UN Commission on Human Rights. The Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR19 The Second Optional Protocol goes further than the ICCPR itself and prohibits executions and requires state parties to abolish the death penalty in peacetime. However, the Second Optional Protocol does provide the possibility for State Parties to retain the death penalty for certain crimes committed in wartime. Article 2 states that no reservation to the Protocol is admissible except for a reservation made at the time of ratification or accession that provides for the application of the death penalty in time of war pursuant to a conviction for a most serious crime of a military nature committed during wartime. 3.2 COUNCIL OF EUROPE European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR)20 The death penalty is not prohibited by the ECHR as such. Article 2 of the ECHR provides that “No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law”. Unlike the ICCPR, the ECHR places no explicit restrictions on the use of the death penalty. However, certain limits have been placed on the application of the death penalty through the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights in relation to Article 2 and Article 321. Moreover, since the ECHR entered into force, two additional Protocols that concern the abolition of the death penalty have been adopted. 18 19 20 21 Resolution 2000/17 of 17 August 2000. Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 44/128 of 15 December 1989. ETS No.005. Entered into force on 3 September 1953. ‘No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.’ 13