CCPR/C/GC/36 threat.40 States parties should not resort to less-lethal weapons in situations of crowd control that can be addressed through less harmful means, 41 especially situations involving the exercise of the right to peaceful assembly. 15. When private individuals or entities are empowered or authorized by a State party to employ force with potentially lethal consequences, the State party is under an obligation to ensure that such employment of force actually complies with article 6 and the State party remains responsible for any failure to comply. 42 Among other things, a State party must rigorously limit the powers afforded to private actors and ensure that strict and effective measures of monitoring and control, as well as adequate training, are in place in order to guarantee, inter alia, that the powers granted are not misused and do not lead to arbitrary deprivation of life. For example, a State party must take adequate measures to ensure that persons who were involved or are currently involved in serious human rights violations or abuses are excluded from private security entities empowered or authorized to employ force.43 It must also ensure that victims of arbitrary deprivation of life by private individuals or entities empowered or authorized by the State party are granted an effective remedy.44 16. Paragraphs 2, 4 and 5 of article 6 implicitly recognize that countries that have not abolished the death penalty and have not ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, are not legally barred under the Covenant from applying the death penalty with regard to the most serious crimes, subject to a number of strict conditions. Other procedures regulating activity that may result in deprivation of life, such as protocols for administering new drugs, must be established by law, accompanied by effective institutional safeguards designed to prevent arbitrary deprivation of life, and must be compatible with other provisions of the Covenant. 17. The deprivation of life of individuals through acts or omissions that violate provisions of the Covenant other than article 6 is, as a rule, arbitrary in nature. This includes, for example, the use of force resulting in the death of demonstrators exercising their right to freedom of assembly 45 and the passing of a death sentence following a trial that failed to meet the due process requirements of article 14 of the Covenant.46 III. Duty to protect life 18. The second sentence of article 6 (1) provides that the right to life “shall be protected by law”. This implies that States parties must establish a legal framework to ensure the full enjoyment of the right to life by all individuals as may be necessary to give effect to the right to life. The duty to protect the right to life by law also includes an obligation for States parties to adopt any appropriate laws or other measures in order to protect life from all reasonably foreseeable threats, including from threats emanating from private persons and entities. 19. The duty to protect by law the right to life requires that any substantive ground for deprivation of life must be prescribed by law and must be defined with sufficient precision to avoid overly broad or arbitrary interpretation or application.47 Since deprivation of life by the authorities of the State is a matter of the utmost gravity, the law must strictly control and limit the circumstances in which a person may be deprived of his or her life by those authorities,48 and States parties must ensure full compliance with all of the relevant legal provisions. The duty to protect by law the right to life also requires States parties to organize all State organs and governance structures through which public authority is exercised in a manner consistent with the need to respect and ensure the right to life, 49 including establishing by law adequate institutions and procedures for preventing deprivation of life, investigating and prosecuting potential cases of unlawful deprivation of life, meting out punishment and providing full reparation. 20. States parties must enact a protective legal framework that includes effective criminal prohibitions on all manifestations of violence or incitement to violence that are likely to result in deprivation of life, such as intentional and negligent homicide, unnecessary or disproportionate use of firearms,50 infanticide,51 “honour” killings,52 lynching,53 violent hate crimes, 54 blood feuds, 55 ritual killings, 56 death threats and terrorist attacks. The criminal sanctions attached to these crimes must be commensurate with their gravity, 57 while remaining compatible with all the provisions of the Covenant. 4