The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 background paper contains an introductory essay written by the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Marta Santos Pais.4 Part II of the background paper covers the current status of the death penalty in the OSCE region, based on the information provided by the OSCE participating States and other relevant sources. Throughout the background paper, an abolitionist state is defined as an OSCE participating State in which there is no death penalty, in law, for all crimes. A de-facto abolitionist state is one in which the death penalty is allowed, although in practice the punishment is not imposed. A retentionist state is one that continues to implement this penalty and carries out executions. 2. Introductory Essay of the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Marta Santos Pais The rights of children of parents sentenced to the death penalty or executed The rights of children of parents sentenced to the death penalty or subject to execution have been largely invisible and neglected. It is crucial to bring the child’s perspective into these reflections. In recent years, we have seen some promising developments at the global level: in September 2013, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations held an important panel discussion on the rights of children of parents sentenced to the death penalty or executed, and the topic has been given distinct attention by the reports of the Secretary-General on the question of death penalty. In addition, the topic has been raised in the Universal Periodic Review process and the Committee on the Rights of the Child has addressed it in the review of States’ reports on national implementation. The decision of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to devote the introductory essay in this year’s background paper to this topic will hopefully be an important contribution to this debate. Several international and regional human rights instruments prohibit the use of capital punishment, encourage its abolition and strictly limit its application to the “most serious crimes.” Some 160 states have abolished or introduced a moratorium on the death penalty either in law or practice, and some have suspended its enforcement. Despite a general trend away from capital punishment in some countries there is lack of transparency surrounding executions and at times data regarding the use of death penalty is classified as state secrets. Needless to say, it is even more difficult to obtain information about affected children and families. Better data collection and sound research are urgently needed in this area. 4  The opinion expressed by the Special Representative are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the OSCE or ODIHR. 6