The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2019 The Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan permits the imposition of the death penalty for the following crimes: aggravated murder, terrorism-related offenses resulting in death and not resulting in death, rape not resulting in death and war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.289 Individuals below the age of 18 when they commit a crime, women, pregnant women, women with small children, intellectually disabled people, mentally ill people and individuals over the age of 63 at the time of sentencing are all excluded from the death penalty in Tajikistan.290 The UN Secretary-General noted in his report to the UN General Assembly in July 2018 that Tajikistan is one of a number of states that “adopted legislation providing that persons who develop mental illnesses after sentencing are exempt from execution.”291 2.3.1 Abolitionist for ordinary crimes only Since 2010, Kazakhstan has been defined as de facto abolitionist in ODIHR background papers on the death penalty. However, it was previously classified as “partly abolitionist”, meaning that the death penalty was abolished for crimes committed in peacetime, but retained for crimes committed in wartime. In light of a death sentence handed down in 2016, it would be more appropriate to reclassify Kazakhstan as abolitionist for ordinary crimes only. This is a United Nations designation that refers to countries whose laws retain the death penalty only for exceptional crimes, such as crimes in times of war or those committed against the state, such as treason, terrorism or armed insurrection.292 This is also how Amnesty International refers to Kazakhstan in its annual death penalty report.293 An indefinite moratorium on executions has remained in place until “the full abolition of the death penalty is resolved” in Kazakhstan since the issuance of a presidential decree in 2003, when Kazakhstan halted executions and introduced life imprisonment as an alternative to the death sentence.294 However, amendments to the 289  “Tajikistan”, Death Penalty Database, <http://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/country-search-post.cfm?country=Tajikistan&region=&method=>. 290  Ibid. 291  Report of the Secretary-General, Moratorium on the use of the death penalty, op. cit., note 62, para. 37. 292  Report of the Secretary-General, United Nations Economic and Social Council, “Capital punishment and implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty”, 13 April 2015, E/2015/49, para. 10, <https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/DeathPenalty/E-2015-49.pdf>. 293  Amnesty International, “Amnesty International Global Report: Death Sentences and Executions 2018”, op. cit., note 74, p. 48. 294  “The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2016”, op. cit., note 3, p. 38. 55