The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 violence, alcoholism, substance abuse, running away from home, disobedience and stubbornness, and they may turn to committing crimes and end up being arrested and imprisoned like their parents.36 In addition, they may also have sleeping problems, such as nightmares, insomnia and night terrors. Moreover, psychologists working with children and families of those sentenced to death or executed in the United States have found that many experience this uniquely difficult type of “disenfranchised grief”, leading to depression, severe anxiety, self-induced isolation, somatic illnesses, withdrawal, emotional problems and even post-traumatic stress disorder.37 Children may experience trauma from the day of arrest to the day of execution. For many children, the arrest of a parent will be the first time they have had contact with the criminal justice system.38 The fear and uncertainty about what will happen to the parent may not be resolved until the judicial process is complete.39 Particularly in judicial systems involving multiple appeals and stays of execution, children can experience emotional “rollercoasters” of repeated hope and disappointment.40 In addition, in some circumstances, executions may be carried out in secrecy, with little information provided, compounding a child’s distress. Families may not be informed of the execution until after it has taken place, and in some cases may not have the body for the deceased returned to them for burial. Violation of children’s right to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Given the above mentioned serious impacts on a child and the severe pain and suffering caused, the sentencing to death and subsequent execution of a parent may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of the child, as prohibited under the absolute prohibition against torture and other ill-treatment. This has already been well established in cases where secrecy surrounding detention on death row and executions and the failure to return the bodies to the family are practiced. For instance, the Human Rights Committee has stated that the failure to notify the children of the prisoners on death row of their execution is incompatible with the Covenant.41 The Committee views these practices as having the effect of “intimidating or punishing the children by leaving them in a state of 36  Ibid, p. 193. 37  Kearney, op. cit., note 10, p. 69. 38  Robertson and Brett, op. cit., note 29, p. 10. 39  Ibid., p. 7. 40  Statement of Penal Reform International, at 2013 ODIHR Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM), Working Session 14: Abolition of the Death Penalty, 2 October 2013, <https://www.penalreform.org/ wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Oct-2013-OSCE-DP-for-website.pdf>. 41  Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee: Japan, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/79/Add.102 (1998), para.21, <http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR%2FC%2F79%2FAdd.102&Lang=en>. 17