The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area the death penalty may be imposed in violation of internationally recognized standards, unless adequate assurances are obtained that the death penalty will not be carried out. 80. The lack of data on the number of executions or individuals on death row is a serious impediment to international and national debates that may lead to the abolition of capital punishment. It will also be important for the effectiveness and transparency of such a debate to ensure that the public has access to balanced information, including accurate information and statistics on criminality and the various effective ways to combat it, without resorting to capital punishment. 81. There is an also urgent need to examine the effects of the capital punishment system in its entirety, including the social, economic and psychological impact on the children of those executed or under death sentence. Report of the United Nations Secretary-General, Question of the death penalty, A/HRC/27/23196 (2014) […] VIII. Conclusions 72. The trend towards the universal abolition of the death penalty is continuing. However, numerous concerns remain with regard to the lack of respect for relevant international human rights norms and standards in States where the death penalty is still imposed. Until the death penalty is fully abolished, retentionist States must ensure that the death penalty is imposed only for those crimes that involve intentional killing. The death penalty should not be imposed for “drug offences”, “consensual adult sex”, “blasphemy” or any other acts that do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes”. States should abolish the mandatory death penalty, where it still exists. States must also ensure that the highest level of compliance with fair trial and other international human rights norms and standards are met in all death penalty cases. 73. The lack of data on the number of executions or individuals on death row is a serious impediment to debate on the abolition of capital punishment. It will also be important, for the effectiveness and transparency of such a debate, to ensure that the public has access to balanced information, including accurate information and statistics on criminality and the various effective ways to combat it, without resorting to capital punishment. 196  See also previous reports: A/HRC/4/78, A/HRC/8/11, A/HRC/12/45, A/HRC/15/19, A/HRC/18/20, A/ HRC/21/29 and A/HRC/24/18 69