A/HRC/21/29 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 2 July 2012 Original: English Human Rights Council Twenty-first session Agenda items 2 and 3 Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Question of the death penalty Report of the Secretary-General Summary The present report contains information mostly covering the period from July 2011 to June 2012. Although the international community as a whole is moving towards abolition of the death penalty in law or in practice, some Member States have continued to use the death penalty during the reporting period. In some instances, international standards guaranteeing the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty were not fully respected. In this regard, the report draws attention to a number of phenomena, including the ongoing difficulties in gaining access to reliable information regarding executions, the continued use of the death penalty in violation of international safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, in particular the use of the death penalty for crimes, such as drug offences, which could not be considered as “most serious crimes”, and its use against children under 18 at the time of the alleged offence and members of vulnerable groups, in particular individuals belonging to racial, religious, national, ethnic and sexual minorities. Attention is drawn to the forthcoming report of the Secretary-General to the General Assembly on moratorium on the use of the death penalty, which will highlight, inter alia, national and international efforts made towards the universal abolition of the death penalty. GE.12-14877