The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area sought. Along with the draft law, corresponding amendments to the criminal law and other relevant legislation are being prepared.20 In September 2008, several high-level officials, including the head of the parliamentary Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee, the Minister of Justice and the Minister of the Interior, called for a review of domestic law on the abolition of the death penalty with a view to its reintroduction, as a new capital punishment debate emerged in the country following the murder of a young girl.21 The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) expressed his concern about such statements saying: “Under no circumstances can the reintroduction of the death penalty ever be on the Council of Europe or European Union agenda again.”22 Outside this discussion, on 9 January 2009, the Government of Latvia, through its Cabinet of Ministers, approved a Strategy on the Policy of Criminal Sanctions, which, inter alia, reaffirmed the Government’s support for the full removal of the death penalty from national legislation.23 KAZAKHSTAN In Kazakhstan, the death penalty has been abolished in all cases except acts of terrorism entailing loss of life and grave crimes committed in wartime.24 On 10 July 2009, the President of Kazakhstan signed the Law “On the introduction of amendments to some legislative acts on the issue of capital punishment,” aimed at bringing the country’s laws related to the death penalty into compliance with the Constitution of Kazakhstan, which was amended in 2007.25 The Law introduced changes to the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code of Kazakhstan. According to these changes, capital punishment may only be imposed for terrorist crimes causing death and for severe crimes committed during wartime. The legislative changes reduced the number of crimes during wartime carrying the death penalty from 18 to eight: genocide; mercenary activity (the participation of a 20  Response to the ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty from the Permanent Mission of Latvia to the OSCE, 7 July 2008. 21  Information on Latvia in “Amnesty International Report 2009: State of the World’s Human Rights”, Amnesty International, 2009, <http://thereport.amnesty.org/en/regions/europe-central-asia/latvia>. 22  Council of Europe, Press release - 660(2008), 25 September 2009, <https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc. jsp?id=1345947&Site=COE>. 23  Response from the Permanent Mission of Latvia to the OSCE, op. cit., note 20. 24  Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as amended on 21 May 2007. 25  Response to the ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty from the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the OSCE, 22 July 2009. 5