to have the process repeated. We do not believe that the Committee should look into such details in respect of execution such as whether acute pain of limited duration or less pain of longer duration is preferable and could be a criterion for a finding of violation of the Covenant. By definition, every type of deprivation of an individual's life is inhuman. In practice, however, some methods have by common agreement been considered as acceptable methods of execution. Asphyxiation by gas is definitely not to be found among them. There remain, however, divergent opinions on this subject. On 21 April 1992, the Supreme Court of the United States denied an individual a stay of execution by gas asphyxiation in California by a seven-to-two vote. One of the dissenting justices, Justice John Paul Stevens, wrote: [English original] C. INDIVIDUAL OPINION SUBMITTED BY MR. RAJSOOMER LALLAH (DISSENTING) "The barbaric use of cyanide gas in the Holocaust, the development of cyanide agents as chemical weapons, our contemporary understanding of execution by lethal gas and the development of less cruel methods of execution all demonstrate that execution by cyanide gas is unnecessarily cruel. In light of all we know about the extreme and unnecessary pain inflicted by execution by cyanide gas." For the reasons I have already given in my separate opinion in the case of J. J. Kindler v. Canada (communication No. 470/1991) with regard to the obligations of Canada under the Covenant, I would conclude that there has been a violation of article 6 of the Covenant. If only for that reason alone, article 7 has also, in my opinion, been violated. Even at this stage, Canada should use its best efforts to provide a remedy by making appropriate representations, so as to ensure that, if convicted and sentenced to death, the author would not be executed. Justice Stevens found that the individual's claim had merit. [English original] In my view, the above summarizes in a very convincing way why gas asphyxiation must be considered as a cruel and unusual punishment that amounts to a violation of article 7. What is more, the State of California, in August 1992, enacted a statute law that enables an individual under sentence of death to choose lethal injection as the method of execution, in lieu of the gas chamber. The statute law went into effect on 1 January 1993. Two executions by lethal gas had taken place during 1992, approximately one year after the extradition of Mr. Ng. By amending its legislation in the way described above, the State of California joined 22 other States in the United States. The purpose of the legislative amendment was not, however, to eliminate an allegedly cruel and unusual punishment, but to forestall last-minute appeals by condemned prisoners who might argue that execution by lethal gas constitutes such punishment. Not that I consider execution by lethal injection acceptable either from a point of view of humanity, but – at least – it does not stand out as an unnecessarily cruel and inhumane method of execution, as does gas asphyxiation. Canada failed to fulfil its obligation to protect Mr. Ng against cruel and inhuman punishment by extraditing him to the United States (the State of California), where he might be subjected to such punishment. And Canada did so without seeking and obtaining assurances of his non-execution by means of the only method of execution that existed in the State of California at the material time of extradition. D. INDIVIDUAL OPINION SUBMITTED BY MR. BERTIL WENNERGREN (PARTLY DISSENTING, PARTLY CONCURRING) I do not share the Committee's Views with respect to a non-violation of article 6 of the Covenant, as expressed in paragraphs 15.6 and 15.7 of the Views. On grounds that I have developed in detail in my individual opinion concerning the Committee's Views on communication No.470/1991 (Joseph Kindler v. Canada) Canada did, in my view, violate article 6, paragraph 1, of the Covenant by consenting to extradite Mr. Ng to the United States without having secured assurances that he would not, if convicted and sentenced to death, be subjected to the execution of the death sentence. I do share the Committee's Views, formulated in paragraphs 16.1 to 16.5, that Canada failed to comply with its obligations under the Covenant by extraditing Mr. Ng to the United States, where, if sentenced to death, he would be executed by means of a method that amounts to a violation of article 7. In my view, article 2 of the Covenant obliged Canada not merely to seek assurances that Mr. Ng would not be subjected to the execution of a death sentence but also, if it decided none the less to extradite Mr. Ng without such assurances, as was the case, to at least secure assurances that he would not be subjected to the execution of the death sentence by cyanide gas asphyxiation. [English original] E. INDIVIDUAL OPINION SUBMITTED BY MR. KURT HERNDL (DISSENTING) Article 6, paragraph 2, of the Covenant permits courts in countries which have not abolished the death penalty to impose the death sentence on an individual if that individual has been found guilty of a most serious crime, and to carry out the death sentence by execution. This exception from the rule of article 6, paragraph 1, applies only vis-à-vis the State party in question, not vis-à-vis other States parties to the Covenant. It therefore did not apply to Canada as it concerned an execution to be carried out in the United States. 1. While I do agree with the Committee's finding that there is no violation of article 6 of the Covenant in the present case, I do not share the majority's findings as to a possible violation of article 7. In fact, I completely disagree with the conclusion that Canada which – as the Committee's majority argue in paragraph 16.4 of the Views – "could reasonably foresee that Mr. Ng, if sentenced to death, would be executed in a way that 107