A/HRC/39/19 March 2017, Kuwait formally abolished the death penalty for all offenders under the age of 18.143 40. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran reported that five juvenile offenders were executed in 2017.144. During the reporting period, the High Commissioner and special procedure mandate holders called on the Islamic Republic of Iran to refrain from the execution of juvenile offenders and to undertake a special review of the cases of persons on death row for crimes committed when they were under the age of 18. 145 41. With regard to Afghanistan, in 2016 the Committee against Torture welcomed the fact that a committee had been established to review death penalty sentences and to discuss a plan to declare a moratorium on the death penalty. In the meantime, it called for Afghanistan to immediately end the practice of execution of minors.146 Also in 2016, the Committee on the Rights of the Child urged Saudi Arabia to ensure that the death sentences of juveniles were commuted in line with international juvenile justice standards and to amend its legislation with a view to unambiguously prohibiting the imposition of the death sentence on children.147 In 2017, the Committee urged St. Vincent and the Grenadines to amend the Criminal Code to explicitly prohibit the sentencing of persons under 18 years of age to the death penalty.148 42. In its submission, Pakistan stated that the death penalty could not be imposed on individuals below the age of 18 and that no individual below the age of 18 had been sentenced to death. Pakistan also reported that the Juvenile Justice System Bill, 2017, which had been passed by the National Assembly and referred to the Senate, “allows for self-determination of age, shifting the onus to prove otherwise on the prosecution”. 149 Also in 2017, the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that Pakistan should, as a matter of priority, take all measures necessary to ensure that those charged with a capital offence had access to an effective and independent age determination process in order to ensure that, in cases where there was no proof of age, the child is entitled to a proper investigation to establish his or her age and, in the case of conflicting or inconclusive evidence, has the right to the rule of the benefit of the doubt.150 B. Persons with mental or intellectual disabilities 43. In accordance with international human rights law, the death penalty should not be imposed on persons with mental or intellectual disabilities. 151 In March 2017, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council accepted that the execution of a person in Trinidad and Tobago 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 14 Law No. 111 of 2015 and The Juvenile Law, art. 15 (as amended in March 2017). Submission by Child Rights International Network. See A/HRC/37/68, para. 19. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23279&LangID=E; www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23216&LangID=E; www.ohchr.org/FR/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22664&LangID=E; www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22587&LangID=E; www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21958&LangID=E; and www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22258&LangID=E. See CAT/C/AFG/CO/2, paras. 33−34. See CRC/C/SAU/CO/3-4, paras. 20−21. See CRC/C/VCT/CO/2-3, paras. 26−27. Submission by Pakistan. However, juvenile offenders sentenced to death before the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance Act came into force in 2000 have reportedly remained on death row. See www.jpp.org.pk. See CCPR/C/PAK/CO/1, para. 18; and CRC/C/PAK/CO/5, para. 25. See Economic and Social Council resolutions 1984/50 and 1989/64; CCPR/C/74/D/684/1996; A/67/279, para. 58; and A/HRC/36/26.