The road to abolition of the death penalty in the OSCE region

The webinar will launch ODIHR’s 2021 background paper The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area and provide a platform for OSCE participating States, international and national civil society organizations as well as other interested experts to:

• learn more about how different states have managed to abolish the death in penalty in law and in practice;
• discover which actors play crucial roles in abolition processes to assist states with their own “road to abolition”.

This year’s background paper highlights some of the most influential factors on a state’s road to abolition of the death penalty, referencing the abolition process in Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Latvia and the American state of Virginia. The paper illustrates that the road to abolition is often not linear but can be achieved in various ways in very different contexts when broad coalitions of national and international actors work together. 

The event will feature a keynote address by Jeanne Bishop, attorney, activist and author. She is the sister of Nancy Bishop Langert, who was murdered in 1990 along with her husband Richard and their unborn baby. Since the killing of her loved ones, Bishop has advocated nationally and internationally for the abolition of the death penalty, including its abolition in her home State of Illinois in 2011. Other speakers will include:

- Mark Warren, former coordinator with the Canadian section of Amnesty International

- Tatiana Termacic, Head of the Coordination and International Co-operation Division, Council of Europe Directorate General for Human Rights and Rule of Law

- Asunta Vivo Cavaller, Executive Director, International Commission against the Death Penalty

- (TBC) Joseph T. Flood, former Capital Defender for Northern Virginia

- (TBC) Zhanna Nazarova, PRI's Regional Programme Manager Central Asia

Background

OSCE participating States have committed to exchanging information on the question of the abolition of the death penalty and to providing information on the use of the death penalty to the public. The majority of OSCE participating States are in agreement that the death penalty is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. For these reasons, it is crucial to better understand how countries are able to abolish the death penalty in law and in practice.

Registration and technical information

Please register online by Sunday, 24 October, here.

ENG-RUS interpretation will be available.