4 The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area The participating States that retain the death penalty in some form have committed to ensuring transparency by making information about its use available to the public.91 This publication facilitates compliance with this commitment by providing a forum for participating States to make such information available on an annual basis. This chapter is comprised of country entries on the nine participating States that retain the death penalty in some form. The Constitution of Moldova was amended in July 2006, thus completing the legislative abolition of the death penalty. Each country entry contains information on relevant international instruments, the country’s legal framework, statistics, and compliance with international safeguards. First, the section on “relevant international instruments” lists the legally binding instruments the state has ratified. Second, the section on the “legal framework” outlines those crimes for which a death sentence can be imposed. It is in this section that trends towards reduction in scope or abolition are presented. Third, the section on “statistics” indicates the number of death sentences that have been imposed and executed during the reporting period. Fourth, the section on “international safeguards” provides information on compliance with the international standards that were outlined in Chapter 3. Methodology It is the ODIHR’s intention that the content of each country entry should be based primarily on information provided by the participating States themselves. Accordingly, a questionnaire on the use of the death penalty was sent to each of the relevant states in the first half of July 2006. The questionnaire, which is reproduced in Annex 4, requested detailed information on each state’s legal framework, statistics on sentences and executions, and information on compliance with the international standards outlined in Chapter 3. Of the nine participating States that retain the death penalty, five responded to the questionnaire: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, and the United States of America. 91 Copenhagen Document 1990, para. 17.8. 51