The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2019 has largely lost its force.”25 However, as I became acutely aware during my time as Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and as has been underlined by various events since then, the global movement away from the death penalty has not been a linear process: there have been and will be further setbacks. Yet the direction set by the ICCPR is clear, and remains the overall direction of state practice, in spite of temporary deviations. International debates are greatly enriched by regional mechanisms and bodies, such as the OSCE, maintaining a vigilant watch over the use of the death penalty and the potentially profound injustices that can exist in those places where it stubbornly persists. Working as a vital part of the international human rights system, such bodies can also be a critical voice in circumstances in which policymakers seek political advantage in reversing progress away from the use of the death penalty. For those reasons, among others, I highly commend the present report. 25  Christof Heyns, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions,”, U.N. Doc. A/71/372, 2 September 2016, para.41. 12