A/HRC/36/27 I. Introduction 1. Pursuant to its resolution 30/5, the Human Rights Council held its biennial highlevel panel discussion on the question of the death penalty on 1 March 2017, at its thirtyfourth session. The panel was chaired by the President of the Human Rights Council, opened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Minister of State for European Affairs of France, and moderated by Professor of Social History at the University of the West Indies Verene A. Shepherd. The panellists were the former President of Tunisia (2011-2014), Moncef Marzouki; the Chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, Kagwiria Mbogori; the representative of Thailand to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, Seree Nonthasoot; and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Nils Melzer. 1 II. Opening remarks and statements 2. In his introductory remarks, the President of the Human Rights Council pointed out that, in its resolution 30/5, the Council had requested the organization of the panel discussion and decided that it would address violations related to the use of the death penalty, in particular with respect to the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 3. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that capital punishment raised serious issues in relation to human dignity and human rights, including the right to life and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 2 He recalled that the Supreme Court of Canada and the constitutional courts of Albania, Hungary, Lithuania, South Africa and Ukraine had all considered that the death penalty violated that prohibition. International and national bodies had concluded that several methods of execution were likely to violate the prohibition of torture because of the pain and suffering they often inflicted on the convicted person. Accordingly, it was increasingly difficult for a State to impose the death penalty without violating international human rights law. He highlighted that the “death row phenomenon” — a long and highly stressful period that most individuals endure while waiting for years, even decades, frequently in isolation, for an uncertain outcome — had been found to constitute torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by the Human Rights Committee and other international, regional and domestic bodies, including the Supreme Court of California, in the United States of America. He also recalled that the former Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment had referred to the existence of an evolving standard according to which the death penalty constituted torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and had recommended that the Human Rights Council should request a comprehensive legal study to be conducted on the emergence of a customary norm prohibiting the use of the death penalty under all circumstances (see A/67/279, paras. 53-64 and 79). 4. The High Commissioner noted that almost 10 years had passed since the General Assembly had adopted its resolution 62/149, in which it had first called upon States to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. During that decade, global resistance to capital punishment had increased, to the point where three quarters of all countries had either abolished the death penalty or did not practice it. There was cause for concern, however, as the number of executions in some States had increased and as some States where a moratorium had been in place for many years had recently 1 2 2 The webcast is available at http://webtv.un.org/search/panel-discussion-on-death-penalty-9thmeeting-34th-regular-session-human-rights-council/5343577825001?term=death penalty. The opening statement of the High Commissioner is available at www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21258&LangID=E.