The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2018 and executed, and stated that “social and economic inequality must play no role in access to justice, especially when the defendant risks the sentence of death”.133 The statement strongly urged the three OSCE participating states maintaining the death penalty in law, but with moratoria on executions, and the two retentionist states, to suspend all executions, take immediate steps towards abolition, and join efforts to free the OSCE region of the death penalty. At the 1173rd Plenary Meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council on 25 January 2018, the EU made a statement on the sentencing to death of Vyachaslaw Sukharka and Alyaksandr Zhylnikaw in their retrial before the Minsk City Court on 20 January 2018. The EU strongly and unequivocally opposed the use of the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances. It also stated that “the death penalty is cruel, inhuman and degrading in nature, even when backed by due process in a democratic society”.134 Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Lichtenstein, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, San Marino and Serbia aligned themselves with the statement.135 At the 1179th Plenary Meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council on 15 March 2018, the EU issued a statement reaffirming its opposition on the use of the death penalty. In this statement, the EU voiced increased concern “about the lack of transparency surrounding the use of the death penalty in Belarus, which leaves families of the convicted and the public in the dark”.136 Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine aligned themselves with the statement. At the same meeting, the Permanent Delegation of Norway, on behalf of Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, spoke against the death penalty in the United States and Belarus, and condemned the latest executions in the two countries. Norway stated that the five countries “consider the death penalty to be a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, incompatible with human rights and human dignity. It is also irreversible. The inherent risk of mistake in all criminal justice systems shows the willingness of retentionist States to risk perpetuating the miscarriage of justice through the application of the death penalty. Innocent people are at times wrongfully convicted and executed.”137 Norway also stated that it was well-documented that capital punishment does not itself deter crime. It its reply to the Permanent Council, the U.S. 133  “EU statement on European and World Day against the Death Penalty”, op. cit., note 141. 134  “EU statement on two death sentences in Belarus: OSCE Permanent Council No 1173, Vienna”, OSCE, 25 January 2017, <https://www.osce.org/permanent-council/369956?download=true>. 135  In its reply to the Permanent Council, the U.S. Mission to the OSCE stated that “international law does not prohibit capital punishment. Rather, each country is entitled to choose the path to take on this policy matter. Any decision to eliminate capital punishment must be addressed through the domestic democratic processes of individual countries”, <https://www.osce.org/permanent-council/369961?download=true>; 136  “EU Statement on the death penalty: OSCE Permanent Council No 1179, Vienna”, OSCE, 15 March 2018, <https://www.osce.org/permanent-council/380857?download=true>. 137  “Statement on the death penalty in the United States of America and Belarus”, OSCE, 15 March 2018, <https:// www.osce.org/permanent-council/380854?download=true>. 30