The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2018 of the 57 OSCE participating States are abolitionist states. A de-facto abolitionist state is one in which the death penalty is allowed, although the punishment is not imposed in practice. The Russian Federation and Tajikistan are the two de-facto abolitionist states in the OSCE region. Due to a recent death sentence in 2016, Kazakhstan is now classified as abolitionist for ordinary crimes only, although this remains the only death sentence handed down in Kazakhstan as of today. A retentionist state is one that continues to maintain the death penalty in law and practice. Belarus and the United States are the only two retentionist states in the OSCE region. During the reporting period, capital punishment remained an important topic during Plenary Meetings of the OSCE Permanent Council. A total of 12 statements calling for abolition of the death penalty and raising concerns regarding executions or new death sentences in the OSCE region have been made. The statements have been issued or supported through the EU Delegation, representing 28 OSCE participating States, or individually by Albania, Andorra, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Germany, the Holy See, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Ukraine. This adds 16 additional OSCE participating States to the 28 OSCE participating States that are also EU member states that regularly expressed their support for the complete abolition of the death penalty in the OSCE region. ODIHR has also continued to engage in discussions about capital punishment. On 19 April 2017, then-ODIHR Director Michael Georg Link raised concern about the compressed execution schedule in Arkansas, and once more called on the United States to consider the complete abolition of capital punishment, in the context of the international debate linking the practice with torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.4 On 8 May 2017, following emerging information about an execution in Belarus, Link called on the country’s government, once more, to introduce an immediate moratorium on executions, as a step towards complete abolition of the death penalty. He stated that “the use of the death penalty is completely out of place in a region where most countries recognize the inherently cruel, inhuman and degrading nature of a punishment that fails to act as a deterrent and makes any miscarriage of justice irreversible” and added that “the complete secrecy surrounding executions in Belarus have the effect of intimidating or punishing families by intentionally leaving them in a state of uncertainty and mental distress.”5 4  “ODIHR Director Link concerned by accelerated executions using questionable drug in Arkansas”, OSCE/ ODIHR, 19 April 2017, <http://www.osce.org/odihr/312321>, (hereafter, “ODIHR Director Link concerned by accelerated executions using questionable drug in Arkansas”, OSCE/ODIHR). 5  “Condemning recent execution in Belarus, OSCE/ODIHR Director repeats call for immediate moratorium on death penalty”, OSCE/ODIHR, 8 May 2017 <https://www.osce.org/odihr/315931>. 6