A/HRC/24/18 trial on capital charges or in any way subjecting individuals within its jurisdiction to a real risk of being sentenced to the death penalty and executed.60 58. In South Africa, the Constitutional Court decided that the Government is not entitled to deport or extradite a person charged with a capital offence in a country seeking his extradition, after having sought and been refused a written assurance from the extraditing State that the death penalty will not be imposed, or, if imposed, will not be executed.61 F. Methods of execution 59. In his report to the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur on Torture noted that there is no categorical evidence that any method of execution in use today complies with the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Even if the required safeguards are in place, all methods of execution currently used can inflict inordinate pain and suffering. States cannot guarantee that there is a pain-free method of execution (A/67/279, paragraph 41). 60. During the reference period, the international charity organization Reprieve reported on a continued shortage of drugs available for use in lethal injections worldwide. This is due to several key developments, including: export controls placed on the drugs used for lethal injections adopted by the European Commission in December 2010 and by some individual States; and worldwide distribution control rules adopted by a number of pharmaceutical companies to prevent their drugs from being used in executions. In the United States of America, shortages of the “traditional” lethal injection drugs are reported to have led a number of States to change their protocols and use new drugs. The use of previously untested drugs in executions raises concerns about the pain and suffering inflicted on person concerned, which potentially may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.62 61. During the period under review, public executions were reportedly carried out in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. Special procedure mandate holders of the Human Rights Council repeatedly condemned public executions. For instance, with regard to public executions carried out in the Islamic Republic of Iran in January 2013, the Special Rapporteurs on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and on torture stated that “executions in public add to the already cruel, inhuman and degrading nature of the death penalty and can only have a dehumanizing effect on the victim and a brutalizing effect on those who witness the execution”.63 60 61 62 63 14 Rrapo v. Albania (application no. 58555/10). Minister of Home Affairs and Others v. Tsebe and Others; Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and Another v. Tsebe and Others; Case CCT 110/11 and CCT 126/11. [2012] ZACC 16; judgment, July 2012. Submission of Reprieve for this report, dated 28 March 2013. See “UN Special Rapporteurs condemn on going executions in Iran”. Available at : http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12301&LangID=E.