A/HRC/45/20 38. Submissions highlighted fair trial concerns in Cameroon, 146 Egypt 147 and Sri Lanka. 148 Concerns were also reported in Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Viet Nam. 149 In Egypt and Japan, executions were reportedly carried out while appeals were pending.150 In Singapore, legislative amendments limited the grounds on which convicted persons could apply to the courts after their conviction and sentence were finalized.151 In the United States, the State of Tennessee removed the right of appeal to the court of criminal appeals and provided instead for automatic direct review by the Tennessee Supreme Court.152 In a study on legal aid in the region, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights noted that individuals facing the death penalty might not have been legally represented during investigation and interrogation stages, leading to possible due process violations having occurred unchecked.153 D. Right to seek pardon or commutation 39. Article 6 (4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights requires States parties to allow individuals sentenced to death to seek pardon or commutation and to ensure that amnesties, pardons and commutations can be granted to them, in appropriate circumstances. According to the Human Rights Committee, States are required to ensure that sentences are not carried out before requests for pardon or commutation have been meaningfully considered and conclusively decided upon according to applicable procedures. Pardon or commutation procedures must offer certain essential guarantees, and should not afford the families of victims of crime a preponderant role in determining whether the death sentence should be carried out. It is contrary to the object and the purpose of article 6 for States parties to reduce the number of pardons or commutations they grant. 154 40. Commutations and pardons were granted during the reporting period, including in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, the Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritania, Maldives, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Singapore, the Sudan, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Zambia. 155 In the Niger, a presidential decree granted commutation of death sentences to life imprisonment. 156 The President of Zimbabwe commuted the sentence of prisoners who had spent more than 10 years on death row to life imprisonment. 157 In 2018, the High Court of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of the last man on death row in Saint Kitts and Nevis, 158 including because of the denial of the possibility to make representations before the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy. In 2019, Barbados removed a provision that granted the Governor General the power to set time limits on petitions for mercy.159 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 12 Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide submission. Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms submission. Freedoms Collective/Reprieve submission. See www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act50/1847/2020/en/, p. 12; www.ecpm.org/wpcontent/uploads/rapportindonésie_gb.pdf; www.fidh.org/en/issues/death-penalty/pakistan-poor-andmarginalized-suffer-disproportionately-from-capital. See www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act50/1847/2020/en/, p. 26; www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24204. Criminal Justice Reform Act 2018 (No. 19 of 2018). See https://files.deathpenaltyinfo.org/reports/year-end/YearEndReport2019.pdf, pp. 5–6. See https://aichr.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/AICHR-Thematic-Study-on-Legal-Aid-for-web.pdf, p. 7. General comment No. 36, paras. 47 and 50. See www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act50/1847/2020/en/, p. 12; CAT/C/MDV/CO/1, para. 33. CCPR/C/NER/CO/2, para. 26; https://www.achpr.org/public/Document/file/English/Intersession%20Report64os_Comm%20Kayitesi%20DP_ENG.pdf, para. 12. Southern Africa Litigation Centre submission. Evanson Mitcham v. Attorney General of Saint Christopher and Nevis, Claim No. SKBHCV2015/0129, Judgment, 2018. Constitution (Amendment) Act 2019.