The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2018 OSCE level: Statements made during OSCE Permanent Council meetings between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018: At the 1143rd Plenary Meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council on 27 April 2017, the EU expressed its deep concern about the developments in the United States regarding the planned execution of eight people in Arkansas and the breaking of a de facto moratorium on the death penalty that had been in place since 2005. The EU reiterated its firm opposition to the use of the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances, even when backed by due process in a democratic society. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia aligned themselves with the statement.125 A joint statement on behalf of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, San Marino and Switzerland was also issued. It condemned the executions in the United States and noted that “capital punishment is not a deterrent against crime and makes miscarriages of justice irreversible” and that “in the international community there is an increasing support for the view that the death penalty constitutes a violation of the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment”.126 It was also noted that there is a global trend towards the abolition of the death penalty. In its reply to the execution of Ledell Lee, Jack Harold Jones and Marcel Wayne Williams in the State of Arkansas, the United States Mission to the OSCE stated that “The U.S. judicial system provides exhaustive protections to ensure that the death penalty is not applied in an extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary manner and that it may only be carried out subject to extensive due process and equal protection requirements after exhaustive appeals. These and other protections, including with respect to the manner in which a death penalty is carried out, are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and criminal statutes at both the federal and state levels”.127 At the 1145th Plenary Meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, on 11 May 2017, the EU issued a statement condemning the execution in Belarus of Siarhei Vostrykau, noting that “the death penalty constitutes inhuman and degrading treatment, does not have any proven significant deterrent effect, and allows judicial errors to become irreversible and fatal”. The statement added that the EU “also echoed ODIHR Director Michael Link’s concerns about the secrecy surrounding executions in Belarus”. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia aligned themselves with 125  “EU Statement on the Death Penalty in the United States: OSCE Permanent Council No 1143, Vienna”, OSCE, 27 April 2017, <https://www.osce.org/permanent-council/324241?download=true>. 126  “Joint Statement on the death penalty in the United States. OSCE Permanent Council No 1143, Vienna”, 27 April 2017, <https://www.osce.org/permanent-council/324251?download=true>. 127  See: “On the Executions of Ledell Lee, Jack Harol Jones, and Marcel Wayne in the State of Arkansas”, U.S. Mission to the OSCE, 27 April 2017, <https://osce.usmission.gov/executions-ledell-lee-jack-harold-jones-marcelwayne-williams-state-arkansas/>. 28