The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area 33 ment of criminal-law institutions in Tajikistan. This step by the head of state was, in the author’s opinion, the most important news expressed by the country’s president in his address to the parliament on 30 April 2004, which was a subject for discussion among the world community and was seen as evidence of the just and humane policy that the Tajik leadership has been consistently pursuing in recent years. The head of state based his political decision on natural law, affirming that man, his rights and freedoms are of the supreme value and are inviolable, among which a special place is held by the right to life. As a matter of fact, President Rahmonov said, the right to life is of supreme value and no one should deprive anyone else of this right.24 In order to develop the relevant regulations and legal instruments, a working group was set up that presented the draft law to the parliament for examination, thereby providing a mechanism for implementing the president’s political decision. Under Law No. 45 of the Republic of Tajikistan of 15 July 2004 “On Suspension of the Death Penalty”, application of the death penalty as a form of punishment, enforcement of the death penalty, and other regulations associated with capital punishment were suspended. During the period when application of the death penalty was suspended, prison terms were set at 25 years. However, under Law No. 86 of the Republic of Tajikistan of 1 March 2005 “On Amendments and Additions to the Criminal Code”, an additional form of punishment was introduced into the aforementioned Criminal Code: life imprisonment (Article 58(1)), where it was established that life imprisonment is only used as an alternative to the death penalty for the commission of especially grave crimes and, on the basis of an appeal, that the death penalty could be replaced by life imprisonment (Article 59). This law stipulates that life imprisonment will not be prescribed for women, persons who committed a crime while under the age of 18, and men who had turned 63 by the time of sentencing (Article 58(1)). It is the author’s opinion that the time when Tajikistan, like the majority of countries throughout the world, will outlaw the death penalty as a form of punishment once and for all is not far. In the words of Nikolai Tagantsev, senator, professor emeritus of the Imperial College for Jurisprudence, honorary member of the St. Petersburg and St. Vladimir Universities, and of the Moscow and St. Petersburg law societies, “you do not need to be a prophet to see that the time is nigh when the death penalty will disappear from criminal codes and, as far as our children are concerned, the debate itself regarding its expediency will seem as strange as the argument facing us 24 Paraphrased from the president’s address to the parliament on 30 April 2004. Officially published in Russian as “Poslanie Prezidenta Respubliki Tadzhikistan Emomali Sharipovicha Rakhmonova ob osnovnykh napravleniyakh vnutrennei i vneshnei politiki Respubliki Tadzhikistan Madzhlisi Oli Respubliki Tadzhikistan ot 30 aprelya 2004 goda”, Narodnaya gazeta, 12 May 2004.