THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE OSCE AREA
3.10
TURKEY
RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
International Instruments
Ratification
Status114
ICCPR
R
Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR
S
CRC
R
ECHR
R
Protocol No. 6 to the ECHR
R
Protocol No. 13 to the ECHR
S
Status: abolitionist
LEGAL FRAMEWORK
The death penalty was partly abolished in August 2002. The death penalty
was removed from the Criminal Code for all crimes committed in peacetime, and
the sentences of all persons on death row were commuted to life imprisonment.
However, the Constitution continued to provide for the death penalty for crimes
committed in time of war or imminent threat of war; the death penalty was envisaged for 34 crimes if committed in time of war or imminent threat of war.115
The death penalty has since been fully abolished by a package of constitutional and legislative amendments. Constitutional amendments of 7 May 2004
114
115
R = ratified, S = signed, a dash (–) indicates that the participating State has neither signed nor ratified the relevant instrument.
Article 38 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey 1982, as amended by Law No. 4709, 17
October 2001. Articles 125, 126, 129, 131, 133, 136, 137, and 149 of the Criminal Code and
Articles 54, 55, 56, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 69, 70, 75, 79, 80, 89, 91, 94, 97, 101, 102, 126, 127, 136,
159, and 160 of the Military Criminal Code, No. 1632, 22 May 1930.
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