death_penalty_new.qxd 02-08-27 12:57 Page 39 KYRGYZSTAN 4.10 KYRGYZSTAN136 RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS International Instruments Signed Ratified Article 6 of the ICCPR Yes Yes Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR No No Article 37 (a) of the CRC Yes Yes LEGAL FRAMEWORK Status: De facto abolitionist Scope: The death penalty is a legal punishment for crimes committed in peacetime and in wartime. The Constitution states that the death penalty can only be used in exceptional cases137. The Criminal Code envisages the death penalty for six crimes. These are murder, rape of a juvenile under the age of 14, assassination of a governmental or public official for the purpose of seizing his public or political activities or taking revenge, assassination of a person who is administering justice or conducting a preliminary investigation, assassination of a person working for a law enforcement body, and genocide138. In December 2000 the President recommended to the Kyrgyz government to take all necessary measures to enable accession to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR. Furthermore, the national human rights program for 2002-2010 of 2 January 2002 includes a provision on the development of a draft law on the abolition of the death penalty in the Kyrgyz Republic that is to be implemented between 2004-2006. However, no measures have yet been taken towards the practical implementation of this program. 136 137 138 This entry was written with the assistance of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and the Kyrgyz-American Bureau for Human Rights, Kyrgyzstan. The Delegation of the Kyrgyz Republic to the OSCE did not complete our questionnaire on the death penalty. Article 18 of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, 5 May 1993. Articles 97, 129, 294, 319, 340 and 373 of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, 1 October 1997. 39