The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2018 At the annual OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) in Warsaw in September 2017, ODIHR published The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2017, providing updates on the situation of capital punishment in the OSCE region with a thematic focus on children of parents sentenced to death or executed.6 During the same meeting, OSCE participating States and civil society organizations addressed issues concerning the death penalty, including its inhuman and degrading character, and stressed the importance of the ratification of the related international human rights instruments. Participants also expressed concerns regarding calls for the re-introduction of the death penalty in some countries, and expressed support for the UN General Assembly Resolution calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty.7 On 10 October 2017, current ODIHR Director Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, together with the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Marta Santos Pais, stressed in a public statement that the protection of children of those sentenced to death or executed should be strengthened.8 They also said that: “The death penalty has a particularly cruel impact on children, who are often forgotten in the public debate surrounding capital punishment, as well as by states in the wider framework of their obligation to prevent torture or other ill-treatment,” and that “participating States should reinforce their efforts to strengthen the protection of children under their jurisdiction affected by the sentencing or execution of a parent, including in cases where the sentence is imposed and carried out in a country that is not their home.”9 There were a number of positive developments during the reporting period, such as the launch of a Global Alliance for Torture-Free Trade, which aims at ending the trade in goods used to carry out the death penalty and torture, initiated by Mongolia and the EU in September 2017, and supported by 43 OSCE participating States; and the adoption of UN Human Rights Council resolution 36/17, which underlines the discriminatory aspect of the death penalty. Fourteen OSCE participating States voted in favour of this resolution, and only one against. However, there were also some negative developments. Statements by the current United States administration in support of tougher prosecution of drug related 6  “The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2017”, OSCE/ODIHR, 19 September 2017, <https:// www.osce.org/odihr/343116>, (hereafter, “The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2017”, OSCE/ ODIHR). 7  “2017 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting. Consolidated Summary”, OSCE/ODIHR, 11-22 September, <https://www.osce.org/odihr/365486?download=true>. 8  “Greater protection needed for children of parents sentenced to death or executed, ODIHR Director and UN Special Representative say on World Day against the Death Penalty”, OSCE/ODIHR, 10 October 2017, <https:// www.osce.org/odihr/348816>. 9  Ibid. 7