The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area as a sign of humanism, mercy and progress.53 As a follow-up to the President’s speech, on 10 June 2013, the lower house of the parliament (Majlisi Namoyandagon) established a Working Group on the Study of Public Opinion on the Death Penalty.54 The Working Group on the Study of Socio-Legal Aspects of the Abolition of the Death Penalty, active since April 2010, continued its work. No findings of the Working Group were published during the reporting period.55 Co-operation between state institutions and international organizations and civil society on the issue of abolition of capital punishment continued to develop. From 13 to 15 May 2013, a member of the International Commission against the Death Penalty, former Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss, visited Tajikistan to advocate for full abolition of the death penalty in the national law.56 On 21 June 2013, the lower house of the parliament in co-operation with Penal Reform International organized a roundtable “Death Penalty and Life Imprisonment as Types of Punishment in Tajikistan”. The event was held in the framework of a European Union project aiming at the progressive abolition of the death penalty.57 On 24 June 2013, the Tajik government and the NGO “League of Women Lawyers” co-organized a roundtable to discuss death penalty provisions in the legislative framework of the country. The two roundtables held in Dushanbe brought together various stakeholders, including members of the parliament, representatives of state institutions, NGOs, independent experts and experts of the Working Group on the Study of Socio-Legal Aspects of the Abolition of the Death Penalty.58 53  “Полный текст послания президента Таджикистана парламенту” [“The complete text of the address of the President of Tajikistan to the parliament”], news.tj, 26 April 2013, <http://news.tj/ru/node/142537>. 54  Tajikistan Response, op.cit., note 51. 55  Response to the ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty from the OSCE Office in Tajikistan, received on 19 July 2013. 56  “Meeting of the President of Tajikistan with member of the International Commission against the Death Penalty”, Embassy of Tajikistan to Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Mission to the EU, NATO, UNESCO, 15 May 2013, <http://www.tajikembassy.be/content/meeting-president-tajikistan-member-international-commission-againstdeath-penalty>. 57  Tajikistan Response, op.cit., note 51. 58  Ibid. 18