A/HRC/42/28 death penalty on such grounds would be inconsistent both with the Human Rights Committee’s interpretation of article 6 (2) of the Covenant 35 and with the legal principle of no penalty without law, if the offences charged did not carry the death penalty at the time of their commission. IV. Methods of execution 15. Particularly following a long de jure or de facto moratorium, resumption of executions may entail the use of methods of execution that could amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, especially when applied by inexperienced personnel. Execution involving the use of chemicals or gases, or untested drug combinations or protocols, may raise further concerns under article 7 of the Covenant, which prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and medical or scientific experimentation without free consent. 36 16. In the view of the Human Rights Committee, certain methods of execution are in all cases prohibited, as they constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. In addition to injection of untested lethal drugs, these include execution in gas chambers, stoning, burning and burying alive, public executions and other painful and humiliating methods of execution.37 A number of special procedure mandate holders expressed concern at amendments to the Criminal Code of Brunei Darussalam in 2019, which, inter alia, introduced stoning as a method of execution. 38 The prohibition of torture is a norm of general international law that is binding on all States, regardless of whether they have ratified or acceded to the Covenant. All States are therefore bound not to resort to methods of execution that amount to torture. 17. The Human Rights Committee, special procedure mandate holders and the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights have also held that certain personal characteristics and the health status of an individual might render use of a particular method of execution contrary to the prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.39 V. Due process guarantees affected by resumption 18. Capital punishment trials must provide all possible safeguards to ensure a fair trial and respect for due process guarantees, at least equal to those contained in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including the right of anyone suspected of or charged with a crime for which capital punishment may be imposed to adequate legal assistance at all stages of the proceedings. 40 The full provision of these rights distinguishes capital punishment from arbitrary deprivation of life, 41 so death penalty cases must in all cases respect the highest of evidentiary standards. Sentenced persons must have an opportunity to resort to all judicial appeal procedures, to appeal through all other available non-judicial avenues, including supervisory review by prosecutors or courts, and to have their requests for official or private pardon considered. 42 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 6 Ibid., para. 38. Ibid., para. 40. Ibid. Joint communication OL BRN 1/2019. General comment No. 36, para. 49; www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx? NewsID=22671&LangID=E; and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Report No. 71/18, Case 12.958, Merits, Russell Bucklew, United States, 10 May 2018, paras. 73–83. Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, para. 5. Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36, para. 41. Ibid., para. 46.