The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area The Belarusian parliamentary working group on the death penalty continues its activities. According to the Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Belarus to the OSCE, the working group temporarily suspended its activities in September 2012, due to parliamentary elections. The group is not guided by a conviction that the death penalty should be abolished or retained; its objectives are informing the public about various aspects of the death penalty and monitoring the situation in this respect.64 On 21 June 2013 in Minsk, the working group on the death penalty, in cooperation with the Council of Europe, held a roundtable on “Belarus, Religion and the Death Penalty”. The roundtable sought to advance discussion of the death penalty in Belarus through the exchange of views among State authorities, civil society, clergy and international experts.65 Legal Framework Under the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, the death penalty may be imposed as an exceptional punishment for particularly grave crimes and in accordance with the law.66 The Criminal Code of Belarus provides for the application of the death penalty for severe crimes connected with the deliberate deprivation of life with aggravating circumstances.67 As specified in the Criminal Code, capital punishment may be imposed for 12 crimes in peacetime and two crimes in times of war.68 The death penalty is not a mandatory sentence for any of these crimes and may, by means of a pardon, be commuted to life imprisonment.69 It may not be imposed on women, men under the age of 18 at the time of committing the crime or men over 65 at the time of sentencing.70 During the reporting period, no changes were introduced 64  Belarus Response, op.cit., note 59. 65  “Belarus, Religion and the Death Penalty”, Council of Europe, 21 June 2013 < http://hub.coe.int/en/web/coe-portal/press/newsroom?p_p_id=newsroom&_newsroom_articleId=1495569&_newsroom_groupId=10226&_newsroom_tabs=newsroom-topnews&pager.offset=10>. 66  Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, Article 24, 27 November 1996. 67  Article 59 (1) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, 9 July 1999, amended on 17 July 2006. 68  The Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus provides for application of the death penalty for the following crimes: unleashing or conducting a war of aggression (Article 122 (2)); murder of a representative of a foreign state or international organization, with the intention to provoke international tension or war (Article 124( 2)); international terrorism (Article 126); genocide (Article 127); crimes against humanity (Article 128); premeditated, aggravated murder (Article 139 (2)); terrorism (Article 289 (3)); terrorist acts (Article 359); treason accompanied by murder (Article 356 (2)); conspiracy to seize power (Article 357( 3)), sabotage (Article 360 (2)), murder of a police officer (Article 362); use of weapons of mass destruction (Article 134); and murder of a person in violation of the laws and customs of war (Article 135 (3)). 69  Criminal Code, op. cit., note 67, para. 3. 70  Ibid., para. 2. 20