On International Day against the Death Penalty, OSCE/ODIHR Director calls on OSCE participating States to keep abolishment under consideration

WARSAW, 10 October 2014 – On the occasion of the International Day against the Death Penalty, Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), called on those OSCE countries that continue to apply the death penalty or maintain it in law to continue to consider the complete abolishment of capital punishment.

“Although there is no OSCE commitment to abolish the death penalty, OSCE participating States have committed themselves to keep the question of abolishing capital punishment under consideration,” Link said. “I would invite the participating States to take note of the 2013 Istanbul Final Declaration by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, calling upon all states practicing capital punishment to adopt a moratorium on all executions, leading to the complete abolition of the death penalty.”

“As this year also marks the 25th anniversary of the protocol on capital punishment to the UN covenant on the civil and political rights of individuals, it is doubly important that countries keep this issue on their agendas,” he added.

The first International Day against the Death Penalty took place in 2003, and the focus this year is on progress made over the last ten years and on challenges ahead. Link noted that the number of OSCE participating States maintaining the death penalty in practice had fallen by just one over that same period – from three to two.

“In one of the two – the United States – we have seen the number of states that still impose the death penalty fall from 38 to 30 over that same period,” the ODIHR Director said. “This is at least evidence that the option of abolition is being actively considered.”

In Belarus, the Chairperson of the Constitutional Court has stated that the question of a moratorium on the death penalty in the country remains open, and that the Court was ready to consider the issue if requested to do so.

“We hope that the parliamentary working group on the death penalty continues to inform the public about various aspects of the question, and that this will trigger increased public debate on the issue in Belarus,” Link said.   

ODIHR publishes annually “The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper”, providing information on the status of the death penalty across the Organization’s 57 participating States.

The 2014 edition of the Background Paper, released in September, stated that 51 of these countries have abolished capital punishment outright, while another four maintain the penalty in law, but have moratoriums on carrying out executions. Belarus and the United States continue to maintain the death penalty in practice.