Rights added to this interpretation that the death penalty should not be imposed "for non-violent financial crimes or for non-violent religious practice or expression of conscience"7. The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions called, in her report submitted to the 1999 session of the Commission on Human Rights, for the exclusion of the possibility of imposing the death penalty for "economic and other so-called victimless offences, espionage and `disloyalty'". Capital punishment should also be excluded for "actions primarily related to prevailing moral values, such as adultery and prostitution, as well as matters of sexual orientation"8. Article 6 explicitly prohibits the imposition of the death penalty for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age, as well as the execution of pregnant women. The `ECOSOC Safeguards' extend these restrictions to new mothers and persons who have become insane9. In Resolution 1999/61 the UN Commission on Human Rights added that no one should be executed "as long as any related legal procedure, at international or at national level, is pending"10. Article 6 also prescribes that the procedural guarantees contained in the ICCPR must be complied with before the death penalty can be carried out. These guarantees include the right to a fair hearing by an independent tribunal, the presumption of innocence, the minimum guarantees for defence, and the right to review by a higher tribunal. In addition to this, States Parties must grant every person sentenced to death the right to seek pardon or commutation of the death sentence. Article 6(6) states that "nothing in this article shall be invoked to delay or to prevent the abolition of capital punishment by any State Party to the present Covenant". The UN Human Rights Committee concluded in its general comment on Article 6 that "all measures of abolition should be considered as progress in the enjoyment of the right to life"11. In its latest resolution on the death penalty, the UN Commission on Human Rights stated that "abolition of the death penalty contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and to the progressive development of human rights" and called upon all States still maintaining capital punishment "to establish a moratorium on executions, with a view to completely abolishing the death penalty"12. Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD

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