A/HRC/45/20 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 13 August 2020 Original: English Human Rights Council Forty-fifth session 14 September–2 October 2020 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 Pursuant to Human Rights Council decision 18/117, the present report is submitted to update previous reports on the question of the death penalty. In the report, the Secretary-General confirms the trend towards the universal abolition of the death penalty and highlights initiatives limiting its use and implementing the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty. A minority of States continued to use the death penalty, in contravention of their international human rights law obligations. Pursuant to Council resolution 22/11, the report also includes information on the human rights of children of parents sentenced to the death penalty or executed. * Agreement was reached to publish the present report after the standard publication date owing to circumstances beyond the submitter’s control. ** The annexes to the present report are reproduced as received, in the language of submission only. GE.20-10692(E) 