On International Day against Death Penalty, OSCE/ODIHR Director raises concern over suggestions in some states to reintroduce capital punishment in certain instances

WARSAW, 10 October 2018 – While underlining that most OSCE participating States had fully abolished capital punishment, Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), expressed concern over suggestions in some countries that the death penalty be re-introduced in certain instances.

Speaking on the occasion of the International Day against the Death Penalty, she stressed that OSCE commitments call for governments to keep the idea of abolition under discussion, rather than suggesting re-instatement.

“The vast majority of OSCE participating States have either completely abolished the death penalty or maintain moratoria on executions as an important first step towards abolition,” the ODIHR Director said. “But the idea of reinstating capital punishment in specific instances is worrying, and runs entirely counter to the global trend towards abolition.”

Gísladóttir cited troubling suggestions by senior politicians in certain participating States to put the death penalty back on the agenda or expand its use.  

“All countries in the OSCE have committed to keeping the complete abolition of the death penalty under consideration, and political leaders have a responsibility to promote such discussion, not the opposite,” the ODIHR Director said.

The 2018 edition of ODIHR’s Background Paper on the Death Penalty in the OSCE Area, published annually, found that 54 of the 57 OSCE participating States have either abolished the death penalty outright or do not impose the penalty in practice, although it remains in law. Kazakhstan is classified as abolitionist only for ordinary crimes, having sentenced a person to death in 2016 on terrorism charges. Belarus and the United States remain the only two OSCE participating States that continue the use of capital punishment in criminal law.