The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area penalty. This information is supplemented with desk research and information generated by intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, as well as with media reports. This year’s questionnaire was revised and updated to reflect important international developments relating to the issue of the death penalty and in line with recommendations made at the HDIM in October 2013.6 In addition to information on the legal framework and statistics on death sentences and executions in relevant OSCE participating States, the updated questionnaire seeks to gain information about cases before domestic or international courts or quasi-judicial bodies that touch upon the issue of the death penalty. Furthermore, in the Safeguards section, new questions have been included on the cases of citizens of participating States who face the death penalty abroad, as well as on safeguards that are in place to protect children who have a parent facing the death penalty or executed in a given participating State or abroad. This year, the questionnaire was sent to all 57 participating States.7 The 2014 Background Paper covers the period from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014. It highlights changes in the status of the death penalty in the OSCE area that have taken place since the publication of the 2013 Background Paper.8 As in previous years, the background paper provides information on two participating States – Belarus and the United States of America – that continue to impose the death penalty, and on four participating States – Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and Tajikistan – that are de facto abolitionist, but retain the death penalty in law. It also provides an overview of relevant developments in some of the 51 OSCE participating States that have an abolitionist status. The reporting period was marked by a number of developments that reinforce the worldwide trend towards the abolition of the death penalty. In the United States of America, on 11 February 2014, the State of Washington introduced a moratorium on executions.9 On 25 April 2014 and 23 May 2014, respectively, Poland ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR and Protocol 13 to the Convention for the 6  On 21 March 2013, the UN Human Rights Council adopted without a vote a resolution A/HRC/RES/22/11 on the human rights of children with a parent sentenced to death penalty or executed. The resolution acknowledges the negative impact of a parent’s death sentence and execution on their children and urges states to provide those children with the required protection and assistance. Furthermore, at the HDIM held in Warsaw from 23 September to 4 October 2013, participants made a recommendation to OSCE participating States to pay particular attention to the impact of the death penalty on children and to the issue of their citizens facing the death penalty abroad. 7  See Annex 8 for the three versions of the questionnaire tailored for retentionist, de-facto abolitionist and abolitionist participating States. 8  For earlier developments, see The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area – Background Paper 2013, OSCE/ODIHR, September 2013, <http://www.osce.org/odihr/106321?download=true>. 9  “Washington Governor Announces Moratorium on Executions”, Death Penalty Information Centre, 11 February 2014, <http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/washington-governor-announces-moratorium-executions>. 6