A/HRC/30/21 I. Introduction 1. Pursuant to its resolution 26/2, the Human Rights Council held its first biennial high-level panel discussion on the question of the death penalty on 4 March 2015, at its twenty-eighth session. The aim of the panel discussion was to exchange views on the question of the death penalty, and to address regional efforts aiming at the abolition of the death penalty and the challenges faced in that regard. 2. The panel was chaired by the President of the Human Rights Council, Joachim Rücker; opened by the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan Šimonović; and moderated by the former President of the Swiss Confederation, Ruth Dreifuss. The panellists were the Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Sylvie Zainabo Kayitesi; the European Union Special Representative for Human Rights, Stavros Lambrinidis; the President of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, Tracy Robinson; the Commissioner from the International Commission against the Death Penalty, Mohammed Bedjaoui; and Commissioner at the International Commission of Jurists Sara Hossain. II. Opening remarks and statements 3. In his introductory remarks, Mr. Rücker welcomed the fact that around 160 countries around the world had either abolished the death penalty, introduced a moratorium or did not practise it as a major achievement, and underlined the progress that represented from a starting point of only 14 countries in 1948. He also pointed out that under international law, the death penalty could only be imposed for the most serious crimes, and only after a fair trial, among other safeguards. 4. In his opening remarks, the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights described various regional efforts towards the abolition of the death penalty and expressed confidence that those initiatives contributed to the broader global trend. The Americas were the first region to witness the abolition of the death penalty, with Venezuela in 1867, many others having followed suit since. That led to the adoption of the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to abolish the death penalty in 1990. In Africa, a protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the abolition of the death penalty was being considered following the adoption in 2014 of the Declaration of the Continental Conference on the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa (Cotonou Declaration). In Europe, since the 1990s the Council of Europe had made abolition of the death penalty a requirement for membership, and in the previous 16 years, no death sentence had been carried out in any of the 47 member States. In Asia and the Middle East, national human rights institutions, parliaments, civil society organizations and other stakeholders were actively working towards the abolition of the death penalty. In that regard, the Assistant Secretary-General pointed out that in November 2014, the representative of Indonesia to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, in cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the European Union, had organized a regional meeting on moratoriums on the use of the death penalty in the region. He also mentioned that the Consultative Commission for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights of Algeria, together with OHCHR, had organized a regional meeting in December 2014 in Algiers on moving away from the death penalty in the Middle East and the North African region. 5. The Assistant Secretary-General welcomed the fact that in the six months preceding the panel discussion, the death penalty had been abolished in Chad, Fiji and Madagascar, and that the most recent General Assembly resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty (resolution 69/186) had been supported by a record number of 117 countries. 2