The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area 1. Abolitionist States On 16 December 2009, Spain ratified Protocol No. 13 to the Council of Europe’s Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, concerning the abolition of the death penalty in wartime and in peacetime, becoming the 42nd European Country to do so. Spain had abolished the death penalty in its domestic legislation in 1978. Although they do not usually result in lasting discussions, issues related to the application of capital punishment also resurface from time to time in abolitionist states. As part of the process leading up the adoption of a law in Kyrgyzstan to ratify the Second Optional Protocol of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, the question of the death penalty was raised again. At a meeting of the National Security Council, in September 2009, the Head of the State Committee for National Security, Murat Sutalinov, reportedly proposed the restoration of capital punishment, arguing chiefly that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to crime.10 Despite this, on 11 February 2010, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament passed the “Law on the Accession of the Kyrgyz Republic to the Second Optional Protocol of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights Aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty”,11 which was signed into law by the then-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on 17 March 2010.12 In Ukraine, the Communist Party proposed that the death penalty be reinstated for grave crimes, and put the question forward in the country’s parliament on 16 February 2010.13 The request was turned down by an overwhelming majority, with only 32 of the 413 registered deputies voting in favour.14 The United Nations Human Rights Committee addressed one individual case from Uzbekistan, in which it reached the conclusion that the right to a fair trial had been 10  “Pressure Grows In Kyrgyzstan For Return Of Death Penalty”, 16 November 2009, Radio Free Europe, <http:// www.rferl.org/content/Pressure_Grows_In_Kyrgyzstan_For_Return_Of_Death_Penalty/1879349.html>. 11  Declaration by the High Representative, Catherine Ashton, on behalf of the EU on the parliamentary and presidential approval of the Kyrgyz law on accession to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR on the abolition of the death penalty, Spanish Presidency of the European Council’s Website, 17 March 2010, <http://www.eu2010.es/en/documentosynoticias/declaracionespesc/mar16_pesc.html>. 12  “Kyrgyzstan joined the Second Optional Protocol of the UN aiming at the abolition of the death penalty”, Zamandash Press news agency website, 17 March 2010, <http://www.eng.zpress.kg/news/news_only/5/3606.py>. 13  Country information on Ukraine, Hands off Cain Website, 16 February 2010, <http://www.handsoffcain.info/ bancadati/schedastato.php?idstato=13000473&idcontinente=20>. 14  Ibid. 3