growing international trend against the death penalty and the Advisory Council of Jurists, in its Report of December 2000, urged States to move towards its abolition. • Where States have not abolished the death penalty it should only be imposed for the most serious crimes, for example those that have led to large-scale loss of life. • The death penalty must not be imposed on those who were children at the time of an offence and must not be carried out on pregnant women. • The Advisory Council notes with concern incidents of extra-judicial killings, being killings by law enforcement officers, the military or vigilante groups outside of the judicial process and without lawful excuse. • Such killings are contrary to the fundamental human right not to be arbitrarily deprived of life. The perpetrators should not be entitled to claim immunity from prosecution in respect of such crimes. DISCUSSION Any penalties set must comply with the rights set out in the ICCPR and other human rights instruments. In particular, penalties can only be imposed by a duly constituted, impartial tribunal after a fair trial, where proper due process rights (including the presumption of innocence) have been accorded to the accused. Any penalty must be appropriate, reasonable and proportional to the crime. The Advisory Council notes that, as discussed above, under Article 7 of the ICCPR no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Covenant does not contain any definition of the concepts covered by Article 7 and the Human Rights Committee has stated that it does not consider it necessary to draw up a list of prohibited acts or to establish sharp distinctions between different kinds of punishment or treatment. In the Committee’s view the distinctions depend on the nature, purpose and severity of the treatment applied.102 The Committee points out that the prohibition relates not 102 Human Rights Committee General Comment 20, Article 7 (1994) para 4. 60