The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2018 and Policy Options”.120 The objective of the paper is to identify and analyze different challenges to Council of Europe policy on the abolition of the death penalty in Europe and beyond. At the same meeting, the deputies considered a decision reaffirming their univocal opposition to the death penalty in all places and in all circumstances, and reiterating their strong and urgent call on the Russian Federation, as the only Council of Europe member State that has not yet abolished the death penalty, to take, without delay, all the necessary steps to transform the existing moratorium on the death penalty into a de jure abolition and to ratify Protocol. No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights. The decision also reiterated the deputies’ strong call to the authorities of Belarus to establish, without delay, a formal moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolition of the death penalty and to commute the death sentences that have been pronounced. The deputies also regretted that executions also continued in the United States, a Council of Europe observer State. The deputies adopted the decision at their 1284th meeting on 19 April 2017.121 On 13 October 2017, the Council of Europe Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of law provided an update on the death penalty in Belarus.122 On 25 October 2017, at their 1298th meeting, the deputies adopted another decision reiterating that, in accordance with case law from the European Court of Human Rights, the death penalty is a particularly cruel and inhuman form of punishment, is prohibited by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and recalling that Article 2 of this Convention, as amended by Protocols Nos. 6 and 13, bans the death penalty in all circumstances.123 On 28 March 2018, in preparation for the exchange of views on the abolition of the death penalty in Europe at the Ministers’ Deputies 1314th meeting (18 April 2018), the Secretariat provided an update on the situation of the death penalty in Belarus.124 120  “Policy of the Council of Europe in relation to the death penalty: challenges and policy options”, the Council of Europe, 27 March 2017, <https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectID=09000016807026b7>. 121  “Abolition of the death penalty: 1284th meeting”, Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, 19 April 2017, <https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectID=0900001680707509>. 122  “Abolition of the death penalty: Information document by the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law on the death penalty in Belarus”, Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, 13 October 2017, <https:// search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectID=090000168075df5f>. 123  “Abolition of the death penalty: 1298th meeting”, Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, 25 October 2017, <https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectId=090000168075ff35>. 124  “Abolition of the death penalty: Information document by the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law on the death penalty in Belarus”, Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, 28 March 2018, <https:// search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectId=090000168079c838>. 27