HUMAN RIGHTS  //  33 ACTIVITIES HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING During the year, ODIHR continued to closely monitor the human rights situation across the OSCE region, following developments as they arose as well as applying its monitoring methodology to specific thematic issues. ODIHR intervened in urgent situations by raising concerns directly with the governments of OSCE participating States, making public statements and issuing monitoring reports. Following comprehensive and systematic monitoring and data collection on the situation of human rights defenders in the OSCE region, ODIHR released a report entitled The Responsibility of States: Protection of Human Rights Defenders in the OSCE Region (2014-2016). The report analyses critical challenges faced by human rights defenders and good practices by OSCE participating States to protect them. ODIHR also started its fourth cycle of assembly monitoring to identify gaps, challenges and good practices in how participating States meet their commitments on freedom of peaceful assembly. ODIHR monitors, in gender-balanced teams, observed a total of 20 assemblies in Belgium, ­Germany and Italy. On 19 September, ODIHR also published its 2017 Background Paper on the Death Penalty in the OSCE Area. The paper focused on children of parents sentenced to death or execution and on the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.