I. Introduction 1. Overview OSCE participating States have made a number of commitments regarding the death penalty, including considering the potential abolition of capital punishment, to exchange information toward that end and to make information on the use of the death penalty available to the public.1 Where the death penalty is still in use, participating States have agreed that it could be imposed only for the most serious crimes and only in line with international commitments.2 In light of these commitments and its mandate, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) monitors trends and new developments regarding human rights standards and practices among OSCE participating States related to the death penalty. The findings are presented each year in the Background Paper on the Status of the Death Penalty in the OSCE Area. The background paper is based on the information provided by participating States, in the form of responses to ODIHR questionnaires. The information from their responses has been included in the present report, to the extent possible, and is supplemented with information from international and regional human rights bodies, non-governmental organizations and media reports. The ODIHR 2017 death penalty questionnaire was sent out on 17 May 2017 to all OSCE participating States. The reporting period for this background paper covers developments from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017. ODIHR commends the 30 OSCE participating States that have provided information on the status of the death penalty in their respective countries in response to the ODIHR questionnaire.3 This year’s edition includes a thematic focus on children of parents sentenced to death or executed in relation to the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in addition to other relevant aspects of the situation of the death penalty in the OSCE region. Part I of the 2017 1  Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the OSCE, 29 June 1990, Copenhagen, paragraph 17.7 and 17.8, <http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/14304>. 2  Concluding Document of the Vienna Meeting (Third Follow-up Meeting to the Helsinki Conference, 15 January 1989, Vienna), paragraph 24, <http://www.osce.org/mc/16262>. 3  The participating States of Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the Republic of Uzbekistan have replied to the ODIHR’s Questionnaire on the Death Penalty 2017. 5