A/HRC/24/18 I. Introduction 1. Pursuant to Human Rights Council decision 18/117, the present report is submitted in order to update previous reports on the question of the death penalty, including the last quinquennial report of the Secretary-General (E/2010/10 and Corr.1 and 2) and reports submitted to the Council (A/HRC/4/78, A/HRC/8/11, A/HRC/12/45, A/HRC/15/19, A/HRC/18/20 and A/HRC/21/29). As requested by Human Rights Council resolution 22/11, the report also includes information on the human rights of children of parents sentenced to the death penalty or executed. 2. The present report covers the period from June 2012 to May 2013 and is based on information received from States and other available sources, including national human rights institutions, United Nations agencies, international and regional bodies and nongovernmental organizations. II. Changes in law and practice 3. Changes in law include new legislation abolishing or reinstating the death penalty, restricting or expanding its scope, as well as ratifications of international and regional human rights treaties that provide for the abolition of the death penalty. Changes in practice cover mainly non-legislative measures reflecting a new approach regarding the use of the death penalty. A. Member States that have abolished the death penalty for all crimes 4. More than 150 of the 193 Member States of the United Nations have abolished the death penalty or introduced a moratorium, either in law or in practice.1 174 of the 193 Member States reportedly were execution-free in 2012.2 5. During the reference period, Benin repealed death penalty provisions in its Criminal Procedure Code. In the United States of America, the State of Maryland adopted a law abolishing the death penalty, thus becoming the 18th State in the country to do so. B. Member States that have restricted the scope of the death penalty or are limiting its use 6. Even in countries where the application of the death penalty remains, some noticeable initiatives towards restricting its use were recorded during the reporting period. 7. In January 2013, amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China came into force, authorizing the Supreme People’s Court to amend death sentences in all cases. The amendments also make it mandatory to record or videotape interrogations of individuals potentially facing the death penalty or life imprisonment. The 1 2 The International Commission against the Death Penalty released a new report entitled “How States abolish the death penalty”, which reviews the processes towards abolition of capital punishment by analysing the experiences of 13 States. Drawing on these lessons and experiences, it provides guidance to States on how to abolish the death penalty. Available at: http://www.icomdp.org/cms/wpcontent/uploads/2013/04/Report-How-States-abolition-the-death-penalty.pdf. Amnesty International, Death Sentences and Executions in 2012 (London, 2013), p. 7. 3