The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area capital punishment by due judgment of the court for the most serious crimes, as constituted by the penal law of Mongolia.67 Under the Criminal Code of Mongolia, the death penalty can be applied for aggravated murder, assassination of a state or public figure, rape of a child under the age of 14, rape entailing the death of the victim or causing other grave harm, terrorism and genocide.68 It cannot be imposed on women, men under the age of 16 at the time of committing the crime or men over 60 years of age.69 Pardons may be granted only by the President of Mongolia.70 According to Mongolia’s Law on State Secrets and Law on the List of State Secrets, information related to the carrying out of death sentences is confidential.71 The last known execution took place in 2008.72 On 5 March 2014 in Geneva, during a high-level panel discussion on the question of the death penalty held by the UN Human Rights Council, Mongolia confirmed its commitment to the abolition of the death penalty in practice and in law, and provided information on the ongoing work on legislative amendments seeking to remove the death penalty from Mongolia’s national law.73 RUSSIAN FEDERATION*** A moratorium on the application of the death penalty has been in place in Russia since April 1997, when the country, upon its accession to the Council of Europe, signed Protocol 6 to the ECHR and made a commitment to fully abolish capital punishment.74 In November 2009, the moratorium was extended by the Constitutional Court for an indefinite period of time until Russia’s ratification of the Protocol.75 67  Article 16 (1) of the Constitution of Mongolia, 13 January 1992. 68  Article 91 (2), Article 81 (2), Article 126 (2.3), Article 177 (2) and Article 302 of the Criminal Code of Mongolia, 1 September 2002. 69  Criminal Code of Mongolia, op. cit., note 68, Article 53 (4). 70  Criminal Code of Mongolia, op. cit., note 68, Article 53 (3). 71  The Law on the State Secrets of Mongolia, 18 April 1995, and the Law on the List of State Secrets, 2 January 2014. 72  “ Mongolia leader calls for end to death penalty”, BBC, 14 January 2010, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asiapacific/8458717.stm>. 73  “Human Rights Council holds high-level panel discussion on the question of the death penalty”, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 5 March 2014, <http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14317&LangID=E>. *** The Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the OSCE did not provide a response to the 2014 ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty. 74  “Выход из ПАСЕ не вернет в РФ смертную казнь”, Российскaя газетa [Leaving PACE will not return death penalty to Russian Federation, Rosiskaja gazeta], 8 April 2014, <http://www.rg.ru/2014/04/08/kazn-site.html>. 75  Ibid. 21