A/HRC/42/28 adapt.87 Particularly following a long moratorium, prisoners and their families may have developed a legitimate expectation that execution will not in fact be carried out. 37. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the first human rights treaty to achieve near-universal ratification. Article 3 of the Convention requires that, in all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child must be a primary consideration. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children has pointed out that, where a parent has been sentenced to death, it can be particularly confusing and frightening for a child, who may experience deep trauma, anger, uncertainty, loneliness and helplessness.88 Such feelings may be exacerbated where the death penalty is actually, or is even threatened to be, resumed after a long moratorium. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has stated that whenever a decision is to be made that will affect a specific child or children, all decision-making processes must include an evaluation of possible impacts of the decision on any children affected by it.89 Before reaching any decision on resumption of executions, either as a general policy or in a specific case, States should therefore conduct a detailed assessment of the potential impact on children of parents who are sentenced to death.90 38. Life on death row can have a devastating impact on a person’s mental health. Conditions of detention on death row are frequently worse than for the general prison population and often violate the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules). In some countries, persons on death row are subject to special regimes, which may include lower levels of family contact, excessive time spent in seclusion and ineligibility for training or work. 91 Such regimes may violate the Nelson Mandela Rules and also exacerbate feelings of helplessness, a lack of hope and a lack of control over one’s life, which are common in death row prisoners. 92 Conditions of detention on death row may themselves amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 93 To protect prisoners’ mental health, States should take special measures to provide support to death row inmates in circumstances in which they propose to resume use of the death penalty. 39. During long moratoriums, when death sentences continue to be handed down in the belief that they will not be implemented, such sentences can effectively begin to function as a way for a judge to underline the particular seriousness of an offence, with no intention or expectation on the part of the judge or other participants in the justice system that they will be carried out. Prison personnel may experience significant psychological pressure if suddenly confronted with the task of preparing a prisoner for, or even carrying out, execution.94 40. Implementation of the death penalty, particularly where it is disproportionately applied to a particular group, can represent a trauma for the community and wider society. In its submission, the Government of South Africa drew attention to its efforts not only to abolish the death penalty, which had been historically applied in a particularly racist, brutal and political manner, but also to recognize and commemorate the victims. A capital punishment memorial museum is currently under construction and efforts have been made to recover the remains of political prisoners who were judicially executed in the period from 1960 to 1989 and to return them to their families. These efforts are commendable and 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 12 A/69/265, para. 105. Marta Santos Pais, “Introductory essay of the United Nations Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral on Violence against Children”, in The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Special Focus – Children of Parents Sentenced to Death or Executed (Warsaw, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, 2017), p. 7. General comment No. 14 (2013) on the right of the child to have his or her best interests taken as a primary consideration, para. 6. Submissions of Children Education Society and Friends World Committee for Consultation. World Coalition against the Death Penalty, “Living conditions on death row”, fact sheet, 2018. Available from www.worldcoalition.org/media/resourcecenter/EN_FactSheet_WD2018/. Submission of the World Health Organization. Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36, para. 40. A/69/265, para. 106.