The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area Abolitionist States Nineteen of the 51 abolitionist participating States responded to the ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty.30 The responses reveal a high level of support among these states for the global abolitionist movement. This support is manifested through various initiatives undertaken at the national level and in the framework of various international fora, including the UN, the OSCE, the EU and others. A number of OSCE participating States, including Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Slovenia and Switzerland, reported in their responses that they supported and welcomed the adoption of the UN Human Rights Council resolution of 26 June 2014 on the question of the death penalty.31 Some participating States, namely Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, the Slovak Republic and Sweden, also noted their role in implementing the EU Guidelines on the Death Penalty. Italy reported that active support of the global moratorium on the death penalty was a top priority of its current Presidency of the Council of the European Union.32 In their responses to the ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom stated that combating capital punishment was one of the main priorities of their human rights policy towards third countries. In New York on 27 September 2013, France and Mongolia, together with Benin and Costa Rica, co-organized a high-level ministerial meeting on the role of regional organizations in the progressive restriction of the death penalty.33 The meeting gathered representatives of over 40 states and regional organizations, who underlined the need to further strengthen co-operation among various stakeholders with a view to universal abolition. During the reporting period, France was also active in promoting international debate among youth from abolitionist and retentionist countries on the question of capital punishment by hosting a number of seminars and other educational activities.34 On 10 December 2014, the Netherlands Embassy in Vilnius together with the Belarussian Human Rights House organized a conference titled “The Question of the 30  Andorra, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Romania, San Marino, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom provided responses to the 2014 ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty. 31  A/HRC/26/L.8/Rev.1, op. cit., note 21. 32  Response to the ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty from Italy, received on 22 July 2014. 33  International Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty, Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in New York, 27 September 2013. 34  Response to the ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty from France, received on 28 July 2014. 14