The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area • A death sentence may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime; • A death sentence may be imposed only in a manner not contrary to the provisions of the ICCPR, and the death penalty may be carried out only pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent court; • Anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence; • The death penalty shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant women. The limitations set out in Article 6 (2) have been interpreted by the UN Human Rights Committee in its concluding observations on state party reports, in its General Comment No. 6, and in its jurisprudence on individual complaints. In addition, the limitations set out in Article 6 (2) have also been interpreted and expanded upon in documents produced by other UN bodies, in particular, in the ECOSOC Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty and in the annual resolutions of the UN Commission on Human Rights on the question of the death penalty. The following is a brief overview of the nature of the restrictions set out in Article 6 (2) on the basis of the documentation produced by the above-mentioned bodies. Most serious crimes General Comment No. 6 states that the term most serious crimes must be read restrictively to mean that the death penalty should be an exceptional measure. The ECOSOC Safeguards specify that the scope of the crimes punishable by the death penalty should not go beyond intentional crimes with lethal or other extremely grave consequences. The UN Human Rights Committee has gone further than this, stating that the imposition of the death penalty for crimes that do not result in loss of life   General Comment No. 6, adopted at the 16th session of the Human Rights Committee, 1982.   Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty, UN Economic and Social Council Resolution 1984/50, adopted on 25 May 1984.   In 2006, the UN Commission on Human Rights was replaced by the Human Rights Council. The procedures used by the Commission to promote and protect human rights, such as the work of the Subcommission and the special rapporteurs, are to continue under the new Council. This background paper therefore focuses on the procedures and approach of the old Commission, which retain their status.   Unless otherwise indicated, the documents referred to in the following overview are not of a legally binding nature.