The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area view to punishing or intimidating them or others must be considered malicious and amounting to cruel and inhuman treatment.”146 In its concluding observations on the second periodic report submitted by Uzbekistan, the UN Human Rights Committee remained concerned that, “when prisoners under sentence of death are executed, the authorities systematically fail to inform the relatives of the execution, defer the issuance of a death certificate and do not reveal the place of burial of the executed persons”. The Committee stated that, “these practices amount to a violation of article 7 of the Covenant [prohibition against torture or other ill-treatment] with respect to the relatives of the executed persons”. The Committee urged Uzbekistan to change its practice in this regard in order to comply fully with the Covenant’s provisions.147 On 21 March 2006, the special rapporteur on torture noted that information about executions and the burial place of those executed is still considered a state secret and that in many cases the relatives of persons sentenced to death were informed about the execution of the sentence after they had submitted communications to the UN Human Rights Committee.148 146  See note 153 in Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, op. cit., note 128. 147  Concluding observations, op. cit., note 133, para. 8. 148  Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Mr. Manfred Nowak, E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.2, notes 393 and 399. 44