A/HRC/27/26 57. Supporting the views of States, regional organizations and non-governmental organizations, the panellists recommended that States and all other stakeholders must redouble their efforts to secure an increased number of ratifications of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, which was the only international instrument that prohibited executions and provided an essential legal framework for securing the worldwide abolition of the death penalty. 15