The InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights: A Study on Bangladesh Compliance and national legal regimes protecting these rights. In the following sub-sections, we attempt to expose those gaps. Right to Life: Article 6 of the ICCPR guarantees the inherent right to life, and provides that the death penalty should only be used for the most serious crimes. It also lays down the right to seek pardon or commutation of a death sentence. Article 32 of the Constitution separately deals with the deprivation of life, although this could have been covered by Article 31. By treating this subject separately, the drafters of the Constitution demonstrated the importance that they attached to it. But our Constitution does not lay down any guidelines for the use of capital punishment and nor does it discourage the practice. Section 367 (5) of the CrPC, 1898 provided that if an accused convicted of an offence punishable with the death penalty is given a lesser sentence, the Court should state the reason for awarding the lesser sentence. In 1978, this section was amended requiring the court to assign reasons for passing the sentence, be it the death penalty or life imprisonment. This law, as it stands now, is more in conformity with Article 32 of the Constitution than it was previously.56 However, the code of Criminal Procedure does not specify that capital punishment should be restricted to the most serious cases in accordance with the corresponding provision of the ICCPR. 56 M Islam, Constitutional Law of Bangladesh (Dhaka: BILIA, 1995), 167. 47