A/HRC/42/25 national sovereignty, cultural divergence and extreme circumstances. The panel recalled, however, that sovereignty resided in the people, and States had duties towards all individuals. It was fundamentally unjust for a State to decide who deserved to live and who did not. The death penalty was an act of revenge, not of justice, and the panel encouraged societies to seek reconciliation rather than meeting violence with violence by applying the death penalty. 49. The panel welcomed consensus among speakers that the death penalty, if applied, could be applied only for the most serious crimes, and reminded participants that the Human Rights Committee had clarified in its general comment No. 36 that the term “most serious crimes” must be read restrictively, and appertained only to crimes of extreme gravity involving intentional killing. The panel noted that no one should be put to death for whom they love. Consensual same-sex relations and other so-called crimes of conduct, such as zina, apostasy and blasphemy, should be struck from the statute books. 50. There was strong concern throughout the debate about discrimination in the application of the death penalty, including on the basis of poverty, economic vulnerability, political opinion, sexual orientation or gender identity, sex, psychosocial disability, and other grounds. The panel noted that a first step towards addressing bias and discrimination was to determine its extent, which required published, disaggregated, quantitative data as well as a continuous review of the impact and consequences of the death penalty. The panel observed that the availability of quality data showing how the death penalty was applied in practice was often associated with a sharp decline in public support for capital punishment. 51. Addressing discrimination also required training of judges, magistrates, police officers and social services to understand bias and reform processes that might discriminate. Legislation at national level should be adopted following a participatory approach, integrating the views of civil society. Due process safeguards must be scrupulously applied at all stages of the judicial process and indigent defendants should have access to legal aid. The international community should support those efforts. 52. The panel concluded by noting that it was nearly impossible to apply the death penalty without discrimination and so, to avoid irreversible miscarriages of justice and arbitrary killing, it should not be applied. 10