A/HRC/41/36 superior officers or public authorities authorizing or inciting other persons to carry out” any such killings. 9 In other words, State officials have an obligation both to control and adequately supervise their officers and to ensure that their own statements cannot be construed, correctly or incorrectly, as encouraging the deprivation of life. 30. International human rights law imposes on States a duty to respect, protect and ensure human rights. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur focuses on the nature and extent of the obligation of States to protect against extrajudicial execution and, more generally, against unlawful death, including: (a) When and how an obligation to protect individuals against risks to their life may be invoked; (b) Whether States have an obligation to protect against actions by other States and what the implications of that are; A. (c) Whether such an obligation to protect applies to non-citizens; (d) Whether such an obligation includes a duty to warn; (e) Whether such an obligation may be invoked extraterritorially. Standard of due diligence 31. The responsibility to protect has been the object of much elaboration, including by treaty bodies, special procedure mandate holders, regional and national courts around the world, and expert legal and policy scholars. A key source for understanding the obligation to protect the right to life is Human Rights Committee general comment No. 36 (2018) on the right to life, which summarizes the Committee’s main observations and jurisprudence on the right to life, along with that of other well-recognized sources under international law. In particular: States parties must respect the right to life. This entails the duty to refrain from engaging in conduct resulting in arbitrary deprivation of life. States parties must also ensure the right to life and exercise due diligence to protect the lives of individuals against deprivations caused by persons or entities whose conduct is not attributable to the State. The obligation of States parties to respect and ensure the right to life extends to reasonably foreseeable threats and life-threatening situations that can result in loss of life. States parties may be in violation of article 6 even if such threats and situations do not result in loss of life. 10 32. It is worth repeating here that article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognizes and protects the right to life of all human beings. Paragraph 1 of article 6 lays the foundation for the obligation of States parties to respect and ensure the right to life, to give effect to it through legislative and other measures, and to provide effective remedies and reparation to all victims of violations of the right to life. 11 33. There is thus no question that the obligation of States to protect applies both to citizens and to non-citizens alike on the territory of the State. This is emphasized by the Human Rights Committee when it explains that “a State party has an obligation to respect and ensure the rights under article 6 of all persons who are within its territory and all persons subject to its jurisdiction, that is, all persons over whose enjoyment of the right to life it exercises power or effective control”. 12 Immigration status has no bearing on the responsibility of States to protect against foreseeable threats to the lives of individuals. 34. According to general comment No. 36, the obligation to protect includes establishing by law adequate institutions and procedures for preventing deprivation of life; States parties are under a due diligence obligation to take reasonable, positive measures that 9 10 11 12 Ibid., paras. 2–3. Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36, para. 7. Ibid., paras. 2 and 4. Ibid., para. 63. 7