- - Confidential: communications between a lawyer and their client are privileged.575 They should not, for example, be held with investigators;576 Free of charge if the person has insufficient means to pay.577 Legal aid 45. Free legal assistance applies in the context of both civil and criminal proceedings.578 The Inter-American Court has held that failure to provide legal assistance can amount to discrimination on the basis of economic status579 and the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers note that governments should ‘ensure the provision of sufficient funding and other resources for legal services to the poor and, as necessary, to other disadvantaged persons’.580 This right will arise if the person does not have sufficient means to pay and that the interests of justice require it.581 In order to decide if this is the case, several factors will be taken into account:     The gravity of the offence;582 The complexity of the case; The ability of the defendant to understand and present the relevant arguments without assistance;583 The severity of the possible penalty, particularly if the result will be deprivation of liberty.584 Where there is imposition of the death penalty, the State must provide free legal assistance.585 46. The lawyer provided should be one with the necessary competence and expertise relevant to the offence.586 Equally they should be able to ‘practice their profession without undue hindrance’.587 575 G Human Rights Committee General Comment No.32, CCPR/C/GC/32 (2007), para 34. See also UN Basic Principle son the Role of Lawyers, para 8; UN Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, adopted by GA, 9 December 1988, principle 18. 576 Human Rights Committee Communication 1117/2002, Khomidova v Tajikistan, 29 July 2004, para 6.4. See before the European Court: Ocalan v Turkey, 12 May 2005. 577 See e.g. Human Rights Committee Communications No.646/1995, Lindon v Australia, 25 November 1998, para 66.5; No.341/1988, ZP v Canada, 11 April 1991, para 5.4No.383/1989, HC v Jamaica, 28 July 1992, para 6.3. 578 See Article 16(4) Arab Charter. 579 Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Advisory Opinion OC-11/90, 10 August 1998, para 22. 580 Adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, Cuba, 27 August to 7 September 1990. 581 Article 14(3)(d) ICCPR. Human Rights Committee Communication 1417/2005, J. O., Z. S., and S. O. v Belgium, 28 October 2008. 582 Human Rights Committee Communication 646/1995, Lindon v Australia, 25 November 1998, para 6.5. 583 Pham Hoang v France [1992] ECHR 61. 584 Benham v UK, [1996] ECHR 22, para 59. 585 Communication 845/1999, Kennedy v Trinidad and Tobago, 31 December 1999. 586 UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, para 6. 587 Elci v Turkey, European Court, 24 March 2004 106