The Rights Practice Briefing Paper discuss important and difficult cases, including all death sentences. The committees are a channel for Communist Party influence. A death sentence with immediate execution must be reviewed and approved by the Supreme People’s Court. This procedure includes a review of the case files, an interview with the defendant and, more recently, listening to the views of the defence counsel. The new Legal Aid Law, which comes into effect on January 1, 2022, expands access to legal aid to include death penalty review cases. Lawyers must have three or more years’ experience. The SPC began to publish court judgements online, including some death penalty cases, in 2013. Since June 2021, millions of judgements have been removed from the database including SPC review decisions of death penalty cases. This move away from earlier promises of greater judicial transparency has made it more difficult for lawyers and the wider public to understand court decision making. International standards Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Since this landmark document the international community, through the United Nations, has sought to successively restrict the use of the death penalty. In 1971, in its first resolution on capital punishment the General Assembly concluded that it was ‘desirable’ for states to abolish the death penalty. Today, there is a widespread presumption against the use of the death penalty. Growing understanding of the impact of the death penalty and the risks associated with it have contributed to the evolution of increasingly stringent international safeguards regarding its use. Paragraph 1 of Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted in 1966, states that, “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.” Although Article 6 exempts the death penalty, paragraphs 2, 4 and 5, seek to restrict its use, including to the “most serious crimes”. The Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1989; 88 countries have ratified this treaty. In 2018, the Human Rights Committee issued a new interpretation of Article 6. General Comment 36 sets out detailed arguments for the narrowest possible use of the death penalty. China has no individual executive clemency procedure. Chinese courts, however, support defendants reaching a victim reconciliation agreement (VRA) in murder cases.6 This entails the defendant or their family paying compensation to the victim’s family and, usually also issuing an apology. A VRA should help to mitigate the sentence from immediate execution to a suspended death penalty. In the absence of a criminal compensation scheme in China a VRA also provides the victim’s family with some financial recompense for their loss. Although the courts are involved in negotiations between the defendant’s representatives and the victim’s family there is no legal requirement for the judge to agree a stay of execution where a VRA is agreed. 6 Pascoe, Daniel and Miao, Michelle. “Victim-Perpetrator Reconciliation Agreements in Murder Cases: What Can MuslimMajority Jurisdictions and the PRC Learn from Each Other?” October 6, 2017. International & Comparative Law Quarterly. Cambridge University Press. 3