A/HRC/30/18 B. Defence lawyers 43. The welfare and mental health of lawyers can be negatively affected by participating in a case involving the death penalty, in particular when a client is executed. Recommendation R (2000) 21 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to member States on the freedom of exercise of the profession of lawyer states that bar associations should promote the welfare of members of the profession and assist them or their families if circumstances so require (principle V (4) (e)). 44. In accordance with the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, lawyers’ access to their clients and confidentiality between lawyers and their clients are essential rights of the accused.48 These may be restricted in practice in cases involving the death penalty if the person sentenced to death is in a prison that is not easy to access for the lawyer or in which there are restrictions on all visitors. 45. Defence lawyers are crucial stakeholders in any death penalty related process, particularly post-conviction lawyers who attempt to stop an execution. The looming threat of execution and the fact that the life or death of a client depends on the lawyer’s intervention put enormous pressure on the lawyer. In addition, the number of lawyers who are experienced and knowledgeable in this area is insufficient to meet the number and needs of persons convicted to the death sentence.49 Reportedly, strong public support for the death penalty and a corresponding lack of respect for lawyers who represent people on death row pose additional challenges. 50 C. Prison officials, including medical personnel 46. Some prison officials who have participated in overseeing prisoners sentenced to death or executions have reported negative effects on their mental health, in some cases experiencing symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder or becoming isolated and withdrawn. Somewhat similar concerns may emerge in cases in which prison officials involved in overseeing death rows or executions are discouraged from quitting through ridicule, bullying or demotion. 51 47. Around the world, medical associations have questioned to what extent their members, whose professional ethics require them to be healers and not executioners, may be involved in the implementation of the death penalty. This issue arises regularly, but not exclusively, in the case of lethal injections, where States expect medical personnel to participate in the administration of lethal drugs and monitoring of the onset of death. A global study found that “virtually all codes of professional ethics which consider the death penalty oppose medical or nursing participation. Despite this, many death penalty States have regulations specifying that health professionals be present at executions”.52 It is clearly established under international law and codes of medical ethics that physicians and other medical personnel should not participate in torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. For example, the Principles of Medical Ethics relevant to the Role 48 49 50 51 52 14 See, for example, principles 8, 16 and 22. See Susannah Sheffer, Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experience of Capital Defense Attorneys (Nashville, Tennessee, Vanderbilt University Press, 2013). Submission from Penal Reform International dated 13 May 2015 (on file with the Secretariat and available for consultation). Penal Reform International, “Prison guards and the death penalty” (London, 2015), p. 3. Available at www.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PRI-Prison-guards-briefing-paper.pdf. Amnesty International, “Execution by lethal injection: A quarter century of state poisoning”, October 2007, p. 3.