ANNUAL REPORT 2003 Human Rights with international safeguards, while also facilitating the ex- The ODIHR conducted activities in Kazakhstan throughout change of information about the abolition of the death the past year to promote discussion on the death penalty. penalty. Transparency means that information on the identi- This included a televised national debate, which was co- ty of individuals sentenced to death or executed should be funded by the ODIHR, and a publication on the legislation made public. In addition, statistics and information on the and statistics relating to the death penalty nationwide. incidence of death sentences and executions should periodThe ODIHR, the OSCE Centre in Almaty, and the Kazakh Bu- ically be made available to the public. reau for Human Rights and Rule of Law organized an intenAs a forum for participating States to make such information available, the ODIHR produces an annual publication entitled The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area, which is published in advance of the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting. It is intended to provide a comparative overview of the use of the death penalty throughout the OSCE region based upon information provided by the participating States themselves. sive four-day training session for non-governmental organizations and representatives of state bodies called “Information Campaign on the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Kazakhstan: Strategy and Techniques” in Almaty from 25 to 28 February. As a follow-up to the training session, selected participants took part in the national information campaign on the issue of the death penalty launched by the government in 2003. Despite this effort, some of the participating States that retain the death penalty remain reluctant to make statistics on As a positive subsequent development, Kazakhstan intro- death sentences and executions freely available. A number duced a moratorium on executions in December 2003, of OSCE participating States continue to treat information which will remain in effect until a final decision on abolition on the death penalty as a state secret, a practice that clearly is reached. contradicts their OSCE commitments. OSCE commitments and international human rights law Fair trials place a number of safeguards on the use of the death penalty, which is only legitimate if these obligations are met. In The right to a fair trial comprises a set of distinct yet interre- particular, participating States must ensure that trials leading lated rights and is enshrined in numerous international and to the imposition of the death penalty comply with both na- regional human rights instruments. In recognition of the tional and international fair-trial standards. Throughout fundamental nature of the right to a fair trial, the OSCE par- 2003, the ODIHR co-operated with OSCE field missions to ticipating States have committed themselves to allow na- monitor compliance with international safeguards, a task tional and international observers to monitor trials. that has proven to be particularly difficult in those states that continue to treat the death penalty as a state secret. ODIHR trial-monitoring activities have been developed on the basis of this commitment and aim to encourage compli- OSCE participating States have committed themselves to keep the question of capital punishment open and to exchange information on the abolition of the death penalty. In order for public debate on abolition to be meaningful, members of the general public must have access to information on the legal, political, and moral arguments both for and against the death penalty. In co-operation with OSCE field missions, the ODIHR facilitates the exchange of information on the abolition of the death penalty by organizing conferences and media events. ance with national and international fair-trial standards and ultimately to increase the transparency of, and public confidence in, the legal system. The ODIHR's trial-monitoring programme is implemented in co-operation with governments and OSCE field missions. The programme is used to train members of civil society in national and international fair-trial standards and trial-monitoring methodology and to co-ordinate their subsequent 55