The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area In fact, I found no categorical evidence that any method of execution currently in use complies with the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Even if the required safeguards were respected, all methods of execution currently used could inflict inordinate pain and suffering.21 There is evidence of an evolving standard within regional and local jurisprudence and state practice to frame the debate about the legality of the death penalty within the context of the fundamental concepts of human dignity and the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment. In 2012, I therefore urged states to further investigate this evolving standard in order to re-examine the legality of the death penalty under international law, and to determine its implications for the global trend towards abolition. I believe it is necessary for the international community, including OSCE participating States, to discuss this issue further and to reconsider whether the death penalty per se fails to respect the inherent dignity of the human person, because it constitutes a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and violates the absolute prohibition of torture. Globally, there have been considerable additional developments since 2012, and I believe that the ability of states to impose the death penalty without violating the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment is becoming increasingly restricted. In his recent report on the question of the death penalty from July 2015, the United Nations Secretary-General further elaborated on my findings from 2012, and concluded that the imposition of the death penalty was incompatible with human dignity, the right to life and the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.22 The report states that approximately 160 of the 193 UN Member States have abolished the death penalty or introduced moratoria, either in law or in practice. One-hundred-and-two countries and territories in the world have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, and about half of them have enshrined its prohibition in their constitutions, often making explicit the link with the rights to life and physical integrity.23 Once we add to this the countries that have abolished this punishment in practice, two-thirds of the world’s governments do not execute convicts any longer.24 Amnesty International’s 2015 Global Report documented a steady decline in the use of the death penalty in the United States and around the world. In 2015, only six states in the United States carried out executions, and 86 per cent of executions were concentrated in just three states: Texas, Missouri and Georgia.25 21  Special Rapporteur 2013, Op. Cit., note 6, paras. 31–40. 22  See, “Yearly supplement of the Secretary General to his quinquennial report on capital punishment – Capital punishment and the implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty”, A/HRC/30/18 (16 July 2015), para. 55, <http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session30/Pages/ListReports.aspx>. 23  Ibid. para. 14. 24  Amnesty International, “Global Report – Death Sentences and Executions 2015, 2016, <https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2016/04/death-sentences-executions-2015/>. 25  Ibid., page 13. 11