OSCE/ODIHR releases annual Background Paper on Death Penalty in OSCE Area

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) presented its 2014 Background Paper on the Death Penalty in the OSCE Area at the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw on 24 September 2014.

As in past years, the background paper continues documenting the developments on the death penalty in the OSCE area, and is particularly pertinent in 2014, which marks the 25th anniversary of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which aims at the abolition of the death penalty.

“Participating States have committed themselves to keeping the question of eliminating capital punishment under consideration – in other words, to keep this subject on their agenda,” said Michael Georg Link, Director of ODIHR.

This year’s paper states that 51 of the 57 OSCE participating States have abolished the death penalty in law and in practice. Another four – Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and Tajikistan – do not currently impose the death penalty, but retain capital punishment in law. Two participating States - Belarus and the United States - still carry out executions.

The paper, which covers the period from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014, identifies a number of developments in OSCE participating States related to the death penalty, including Poland’s ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR and Protocol 13 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), abolishing the death penalty in all circumstances. In the United States, the governor of Washington State introduced a moratorium on executions for the duration of his tenure.

Furthermore, the background paper states, many abolitionist participating States continued their support for international campaigns against the death penalty through outreach activities, support for resolutions at the UN and in other international forums calling for a global moratorium and abolition, and the organization of conferences and seminars on the subject.

The information in the paper is provided based on the commitment by OSCE participating States, including those that retain the death penalty in practice or law, to ensure transparency regarding the application of the death penalty by making relevant information available to the public and to other participating States.