The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area and of other affected persons.107 The Council also requested that the United Nations Secretary-General dedicate the 2015 supplement to his quinquennial report on capital punishment to the theme of the consequences of imposition and application of the death penalty on the enjoyment of human rights by those facing the death penalty and other affected persons. Subsequently, on 16 July 2015, the UN Secretary-General published his report on capital punishment and the implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty to the Human Rights Council.108 In this report he stated that, “in the light of the evolution of international human rights law and jurisprudence and State practice, the imposition of the death penalty is incompatible with […] the prohibition of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”109 This finding was in line with the earlier conclusion of the Special Rapporteur on Torture that, “there is no categorical evidence of any method of execution currently in use complying with this absolute prohibition in every case.”110 On 16 July 2015, a report was published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights providing a summary of the high-level discussion on the question of the death penalty that was held on 4 March 2015.111 The objective of the panel discussion was to continue the exchange of views on the question of the death penalty and to discuss regional efforts aimed at the abolition of the death penalty and related challenges. During the high-level event, the Assistant United Nations Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan Šimonović, concluded that the death penalty constitutes an inhuman and outdated punishment (para. 5). During the discussion, several States asserted that the final and cruel nature of capital punishment was per se incompatible with the right to life and emphasized that the abolition of the death penalty contributed to the progressive development and consolidation of human rights. Several delegates also labelled the death penalty one of the worst forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. In that regard, they pointed out that, while the death penalty might be a sentence permissible under some domestic laws, the practice must be scrutinized in the light of national human rights commitments, as well as obligations under international and regional human rights treaties. On 1 October 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted resolution 30/5, which recalls the calls to consider whether the use of the death penalty violates the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment and urges states to protect the rights of those persons facing the death penalty and other affected persons by complying with their international obligations and the right to be free from torture and other 107  United Nations Human Rights Council, resolution 26/2, 16 July 2014, A/HRC/RES/26/2, <https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G14/084/95/PDF/G1408495.pdf?OpenElement>. 108  Secretary General, op. cit., note 22. 109  Ibid. para. 55. 110  Special Rapporteur 2012, op. cit., note 6, para. 41. 111  United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, A/HRC/30/21, 16 July 2016, <http://www.ohchr.org/ Documents/Issues/DeathPenalty/A-HRC-30-21_en.pdf>. 28