The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2018 3. De-facto abolitionist participating States The Russian Federation and Tajikistan remain the only de-facto abolitionist countries in the OSCE region. Both states retain capital punishment for crimes committed in peacetime, but executions are not carried out on the basis of moratoria, established in 1996 and 2004, respectively. Within the reporting period, neither Russia nor Tajikistan have ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, regarding abolition of the death penalty, nor has Russia, as a member State of the Council of Europe, ratified Protocol No. 13 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances. In the Russian Federation, although the application of the death penalty has been prohibited since 1996, with the prohibition reiterated by the Constitutional Court in 1999 and 2009,146 capital punishment is still mentioned in Federal Legislation and formally listed as one of the types of criminal punishment. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for the death penalty as an exceptional measure for five types of offences: aggravated murder, assassination attempts against a state or public figure, attempts on the life of a person administering justice or preliminary investigations, attempts on the life of a law-enforcement official and genocide. The Criminal Code further specifies that the death penalty is not imposed against women, as well as offenders under the age of 18 or over 65 at the time of sentencing.147 The Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation also contains provisions on the death penalty.148 During the working session at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in September 2017, the Council of Europe stressed that Russia is one of the two Council of Europe member States that have not yet signed the Protocol No.6 providing for the unconditional abolition of the death penalty.149 3.1. Kazakhstan: Abolitionist for Ordinary Crimes Only Since 2010, Kazakhstan has been defined as de facto abolitionist in ODIHR background papers on the death penalty. However, it was previously classified as “partly abolitionist”, meaning that the death penalty was abolished for crimes committed in peacetime, but retained for crimes committed in wartime. In light of a 146  “Russian court extends moratorium on death penalty”, Reuters, 19 November 2009, <http://www.reuters. com/article/idUSLJ330478>; see also, “Russia to decide on death penalty moratorium”, BBC News, 10 November 2009, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8352090.stm>. 147  Art. 59, para. 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. 148  Art. 31, 51, 301, 310 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. 149  Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Working Session 12: Rule of Law. Contribution of the Council of Europe. Exchange of views on the question of abolition of capital punishment, OSCE/ODIHR, 11-22 September 2017, <https://www.osce.org/odihr/342976?download=true>. 34