A/HRC/21/29 59. In the United States, the North Carolina Racial Justice Act 2009 allows defendants in death penalty cases, for the first time, to use statistical evidence to show systemic bias in the imposition of the death penalty. If a defendant successfully proves that race was a significant factor in decisions to seek or impose the death penalty at the time of his or her trial, the court is required to convert that sentence to life in prison. In April 2012, a North Carolina judge found statistical evidence of racial bias in a death penalty case, commuting the death sentence of Marcus Robinson to life without parole. The Court concluded that “race was a materially, practically and statistically significant factor” in the decision to exercise peremptory challenges during jury selection” and “in the decision of prosecutors” at various stages of the trial of Mr. Robinson from 1990 to 2010.56 VI. Conclusions and recommendations 60. Developments in the practice of States with respect to the death penalty clearly indicate a growing trend towards abolition. Over the past few decades, the balance has shifted between a substantial majority of States that maintained the death penalty to these States becoming a minority. Furthermore, it may be noted that States that have abolished the death penalty or are moving towards abolition represent different legal systems, traditions, cultures and religious backgrounds. 61. The development of international legal standards and jurisprudence in relation to the death penalty has also continued. International and regional human rights instruments strictly limit the application of the death penalty or aims to abolish it. While article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights permits the use of the death penalty in limited circumstances, it also provides that “nothing in this article shall be invoked to delay or to prevent the abolition of capital punishment by any State Party to the present Covenant” (para. 6). The Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant aiming to abolish the death penalty was adopted in 1989. In the international criminal law context, the statutes of international and hybrid criminal tribunals established or supported by the United Nations for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Cambodia and Lebanon all exclude the death penalty as a possible sentence for relevant crimes. Similarly, in accordance with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court the death penalty shall not be imposed by the Court, a fact that is often cited as evidence of a trend towards universal abolition of capital punishment. 62. Some States, however, still retain the death penalty in law. A smaller number thereof continue to impose it, and thousands of individuals are still executed each year. In some cases, children under 18 at the time of the alleged offence and individuals belonging to vulnerable groups, including racial, national, religious, ethnic and sexual minorities, are executed in violation of international human rights law. 63. For States that maintain the death penalty, the standards to safeguard the rights of those sentenced to death are of crucial importance in ensuring that the punishment is carried out in a manner consistent with their international legal obligations. 56 16 State v. Robinson, Order granting motion for appropriate relief, in the General Court of Justice, Superior Court Division, 20 April 2012.