Through the 1989 Vienna Concluding Document and the 1990 Copenhagen
Document, the issue of capital punishment was introduced to the catalogue of
CSCE/OSCE human dimension commitments. With the adoption of the Vienna and
Copenhagen Documents, the participating States committed themselves
to impose the death penalty, where not abolished, "only for the most serious
crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of
the crime and not contrary to their international commitments" (Vienna
Document, "Questions relating to Security in Europe", paragraph 24);
to keep the question of capital punishment under consideration (ibid.);
to co-operate on the issue within relevant international organizations (ibid.);
to exchange information on the question of the abolition of the death penalty
(Copenhagen Document, paragraph 17.7);
to make available to the public information regarding the use of the death
penalty (ibid., paragraph 17.8).3
These commitments were subsequently reaffirmed by the participating States at the
Moscow Meeting (1991), the Helsinki Summit (1992), and the Budapest Summit
(1994). In accordance with paragraph 17.7 of the Copenhagen Document, the
question of the abolition of the death penalty has been put on the agenda of the
regular OSCE Review Conferences and Human Dimension Implementation
Meetings. A number of recommendations have emerged from these meetings,
although these have no formal or binding status. The recommendations include the
introduction of measures aimed at facilitating the exchange of information on the
abolition of the death penalty, asking the Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights (ODIHR) to act as a clearing-house for such information, and the
development by ODIHR and OSCE missions of projects aimed at raising
awareness against recourse to capital punishment. To date these recommendations
have not significantly been translated into concrete action.
The Copenhagen Document also explicitly refers to other international standards
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