A/HRC/24/18 77. The Quaker United Nations Office reported that, according to academic and policy studies,79 children can suffer change or deterioration in their living situation and conditions, relationship with others and physical and mental well-being following parental incarceration. There is a growing body of evidence that documents the specific and serious mental health implications of capital punishment, in particular for children of persons sentenced to death. Those children suffer a uniquely traumatic, profoundly complicated and socially isolating loss often combined with social ostracism. VIII. Conclusions 78. Developments on the question of the death penalty during the reporting period suggest that the trend towards abolition is continuing. However, numerous concerns remain with regard to respect for relevant international human rights norms and standards in States where the death penalty is still imposed. Until it is fully abolished, retentionist States must ensure that the death penalty is imposed only for those crimes that involve intentional killing. It should not be imposed for drug-related offences and any other ordinary crime that does not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes”. The mandatory death penalty is not compatible with the limitation of the use of the death penalty only to “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. 79. States should amend national laws on extradition and deportation to specifically prohibit the enforced transfer of persons to States where there is a genuine risk that 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. 79 18 See Helen F. Kearney, “Children of parents sentenced to death”, February 2012, available at www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/humanrights/women-in-prison/ChildrenOfParentsSentencedToDeath.pdf. See also Oliver Robertson and Rachel Brett, “Lightening the load of the Parental Death Penalty on Children”, Quaker United Nations Office, 2013, available at http://www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/humanrights/women-in-prison/2013LighteningLoad-English.pdf.