The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area the Council of Europe.”103 The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus expressed his ongoing concern that individuals facing the death penalty in Belarus are being denied a fair trial, the date and time of executions are not reported, the bodies of individuals who are executed are not returned to their relatives, and the location of the burial site is not disclosed.104 1.3 Evolving standard: the death penalty as a violation per se of the the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment As stated by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, the issues outlined above show the dilemma of international jurisprudence and national courts in regard to the actual application of the death penalty and the contradiction with the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment. Since his report in 2012, there is evidence of a trend within international human rights bodies, as well as at the regional and national levels to consider the death penalty in itself contradictory to the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Developments at the international level On 17 December 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 70/146, on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, recognizing that states must protect the rights of those facing the death penalty, which includes the right to be free from torture and other ill-treatment.105 In a statement following adoption, Liechtenstein regretted that the links between the prohibition of torture and the question of the death penalty had not been further explored in the resolution. Lichtenstein, supported by several countries, including the OSCE participating States Norway and Switzerland and the OSCE partner for co-operation Australia, stated that the imposition of the death penalty was incompatible with the prohibition of torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment.106 On 25 June 2014, the UN Human Rights Council adopted resolution 26/2, on the question of the death penalty, in which it strongly deplored that the use of capital punishment leads to violations of the human rights of those facing the death penalty 103  Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, “Death penalty abolition worldwide: PACE rapporteur spells out the next steps”, 10 October 2012, <http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/News/News-View-en.asp?newsid=4162&lang=2>. 104  United Nations Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, UN Doc. A/HRC/29/43, 29 April 2015, para.74, <http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session29/Pages/ListReports.aspx>. 105 See, A/Res/70/146 (17 December 2015), <http://www.un.org/en/ga/70/resolutions.shtml>. 106  See, “Third Committee Approves Texts relating to Torture, Minorities, Elections, Social inclusion, Rights Centres in Africa, South-West Asia, Arab Region”, 17 November 2015, <http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/ gashc4155.doc.htm>. 27