The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area 21 Certain provisions of the Penal Code were changed by a 1995 law introducing a statutory moratorium, i.e., all executions were suspended for a five-year period. This transitional measure was widely criticized as a violation of human rights, since people sentenced to death were uncertain as to their future, which could constitute inhuman treatment and psychological torture. Further legal changes were undertaken in 1997 that were crucial for the process of democratization in Poland, including the adoption of a new Penal Code that finally abolished the death penalty. Under current penal law, the harshest sentences available are life or 25 years in prison. In an explanatory report on the Penal Code, the legislator argues that “the death penalty cannot be reconciled with the principle of human dignity and contemporary values, and it also does not deter [people] from committing a crime”. Article 38 of Poland’s 1997 Constitution states that, “The Republic of Poland shall ensure the legal protection of the life of every human being.” Poland’s obligations under international law The elimination of the death penalty from the new Penal Code of 1997 is evidence of the evolution in Polish domestic law towards complete abolition of capital punishment. This change was a result not only of domestic legislation but also of the binding international standards on the death penalty. The right to life, the supreme value in the international hierarchy of human rights, is granted in the provisions of the standards legally binding for Poland at the universal and regional levels. Participation in the international system of human rights protection implies that it is necessary to enforce relevant provisions and generally accepted international standards. Polish obligations under international law can be divided into four groups, each of which relates to a different system or mechanism of human rights protection. Council of Europe The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, a landmark document in the field of human rights protection, entered into force for Poland in 1993. This Convention guarantees the right to life, with an exception for the execution of the death penalty when imposed by a court for committing a crime for which this penalty is provided by law. Poland is also a state party to Protocol No. 6 to the Convention concerning the abolition of the death penalty. Under Protocol No. 6, ratified by Poland in 2000, the death penalty shall be abolished and no one shall be condemned to death or executed. It does not, however, provide maximum protection, as abolition is only required for peacetime. A state can still provide for the