The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area on executions. 2 It also encourages participating States that have not abolished the death penalty to respect safeguards protecting the rights of those facing these sentences, as laid down in the United Nations Economic and Social Council Safeguards.3 During the reporting period, the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights marked its 20th anniversary, on 15 December 2009. Marking this historic moment, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the universal abolition of capital punishment, urging all states to ratify the Protocol.4 The 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty was held in Geneva from 24 to 26 February 2010. The Final Declaration of the Conference acknowledged positive developments, such as the greater number of countries that have ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and mentioned the commitment by Switzerland and Spain to help “to implement a universal moratorium on executions in 2015”.5 At the conference, Italy’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Enzo Scotti, declared that his country was planning to present a new resolution to abolish capital punishment worldwide at the United Nations in the fall of 2010.6 While there are no OSCE commitments requiring the abolition of the death penalty, the OSCE participating States have committed themselves to only impose capital punishment in a manner not contrary to their international commitments and to keep the question of whether or not to retain the death penalty under consideration.7 In addition, the participating States that retain the death penalty in some form have committed themselves to ensuring transparency regarding the practice by making information about its use available to the public.8 One of the main purposes of this publication is to provide an opportunity for participating States to make such information available on an annual basis. Accordingly, in June 2010, a questionnaire on the use of the death penalty was sent to each of the six participating States for 2  Ibid. 3  Ibid. 4  “UN human rights chief calls for universal abolition of the death penalty”, UN News Centre, 15 December 2009, <http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33259&Cr=pillay&Cr1>. 5  Final Declaration of the 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, Geneva, 26 February 2010, Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort website, <http://www.abolition.fr/fr/depeches/1305-final-declaration--4th-world-congress-againstthe-death-penalty--geneva---february-26,-2010>. 6  Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Italy and Human Rights – Death Penalty”, <http://www.esteri.it/MAE/ Templates/GenericTemplate.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRNODEGUID=%7b8CB58445-8860-4597-89FA122A8794BB9C%7d&NRORIGINALURL=%2fMAE%2fEN%2fPolitica_Estera%2fTemi_Globali%2fDiritti_ Umani%2fLItalia_e_i_Diritti_Umani%2ehtm%3fLANG%3dEN&NRCACHEHINT=Guest&LANG=EN#3>. 7  For a list of relevant OSCE commitments, see Annex 1. 8  Document of the 1990 Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE, see Annex 1. viii