A/HRC/8/11 page 3 Introduction 1. The Secretary-General has submitted to the Commission on Human Rights an annual report on the question of the death penalty. These reports provided interim supplements to the Secretary-General’s quinquennial reports to the General Assembly on capital punishment and implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty. Following Commission on Human Rights resolution 2005/59, a report was submitted to the Commission at its sixty-second session1 The Human Rights Council in its decision 2/102 requested the Secretary-General to continue with the fulfilment of his activities, in accordance with all previous decisions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights, and to update relevant reports and studies. The present report is submitted in this context as an update of previous reports on the question of the death penalty. As such it updates the Secretary-General’s latest quinquennial report of 2005,2 and the final report of the Secretary-General to the Commission on Human Rights.3 The present report covers developments on the question of the death penalty since 1 January 2006. 2. Following the practice adopted in quinquennial reports, countries are classified in the present report as completely abolitionist, abolitionist for ordinary crimes, de facto abolitionist, or “retentionist”. Countries that are abolitionist for all crimes, whether in peacetime or in wartime, are regarded as completely abolitionist. Countries that are regarded as abolitionist for ordinary crimes are those that abolished the death penalty for all ordinary offences committed in time of peace. In such countries, the death penalty is retained only for exceptional circumstances, such as those which may apply in time of war for military offences, or for crimes against the State, such as treason or armed insurrection. Countries that retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes but have not executed anyone during the past 10 years or more are considered abolitionist de facto. All other countries are defined as retentionist, meaning that the death penalty is in force and executions do take place, although in many retentionist countries such executions might be quite rare. I. CHANGES AND PRACTICES 3. Changes in law may include new legislation abolishing or reinstating the death penalty, or restricting or expanding its scope, as well as ratifications of international instruments that provide for the abolition of the death penalty. Changes in practice may cover non-legislative measures with a significant new approach regarding the use of the death penalty; for example, countries may, while retaining the death penalty, announce a moratorium on its application. Based on the information received and collected from available sources, the following changes in law and practice can be reported since 1 January 2006. 1 E/CN.4/2006/83. 2 E/2005/3. 3 E/CN.4/2006/83.