The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 psychological suffering inflicted as result of the imposition of the death penalty on her or his parent. In the context of children with parents sentenced to death or executed abroad, meaning in a different country from the one the child is residing, other international standards come into play. In particular, Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations that includes the obligation to provide regular consular access to any foreigner arrested on criminal charges during detention and criminal proceedings, including to prisoners on death row.17 Access to consular officials by death row inmates is essential to the best interest of the child as it helps to relay information between the child and the accused people facing the death penalty or people sentenced to the death penalty. The state of nationality must therefore provide consular assistance to nationals facing the death penalty charges overseas to ensure aid in legal proceedings through the provision of competent defence counsels that will defend convicted parents based on the need for the court to take into account the best interest of the child. New developments at the international level In 2012, the United Nations Human Rights Council, in its resolution 19/37, called on states “to ensure that children whose parents or parental caregivers are on death row, the inmates themselves, their families and their legal representatives are provided, in advance, with adequate information about a pending execution, its date, time and location, to allow a last visit or communication with the convicted person, the return of the body to the family or to inform on where the body is located, unless this is not in the best interests of the child”.18 One year later, in 2013, the Human Rights Council furthermore adopted resolution 22/11 on the “Panel on the human rights of children of parents sentenced to the death penalty or executed”.19 This resolution deals specifically with the human rights of children of parents sentenced to death or executed and the state’s obligations in such circumstances. It acknowledges the negative impact of a parent’s death sentence and his or her execution on his or her children, and urges states to provide those children with the protection and assistance they may require and called upon states to provide those children or, where appropriate, giving due consideration to the best interests of the child, another member of the family, with access to their parents and to all relevant information about the situation of their parents.20 Based on this resolution, a 17  Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963, 596 UNTS 261. 18  Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 23 March 2012 on the Rights of the Child, A/HRC/ RES/19/37, (19 April 2012), para. 69 (f). 19  UN Human Rights Council, Panel on the Human Rights of Children of Parents Sentenced to the Death Penalty or Executed, A/HRC/RES/22/11 (2013). 20  Human Rights Council resolution 22/11 of 21 March 2013 on a panel on the human rights of children of parents sentenced to the death penalty or executed, A/HRC/RES/22/11 (2013), paras. 1 and 2. 13