Summary

Pursuant to Human Rights Council decision 18/117, the report is submitted to update previous reports on the question of the death penalty. In the report, the Secretary-General confirms the trend towards the universal abolition of the death penalty and highlights initiatives limiting its use and implementing the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty. A minority of States continued to use the death penalty, in contravention of their international human rights law obligations. Pursuant to Council resolution 22/11, the report also includes information on the human rights of children of parents sentenced to the death penalty or executed.