The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 on retentionist countries, such as reducing the number of offences for which this punishment can be imposed and to increase the transparency in its use, including by making publicly available information on any scheduled executions and by following fair and transparent clemency procedures.63 The instrument was proposed by 89 UN Member States under the leadership of Argentina and Mongolia. 2.1 Retentionist participating States Belarus and the United States of America remain the only two retentionist participating States in the OSCE region maintaining, both in law and in practice, the application of the death penalty. During the reporting period, the situation has remained unchanged, with neither country taking effective measures towards the abolition of the death penalty or the imposition of a moratorium against executions. 2.1.1 Belarus Article 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus provides that the death penalty represents an exceptional measure of punishment for the most serious crimes.64 Although the Constitution allows the imposition of capital punishment, Belarus stopped executions for one and a half years (between November 2014 and April 2016) but has resumed in 2016. In its response to the ODIHR 2017 questionnaire, Belarus provided information on death sentences handed down by national courts and executions carried out in the reporting period. However, human rights defenders report that comprehensive and official statistics regarding the number of death sentences imposed and executions carried out are lacking and the numbers of death sentences and executions have to be considered approximate.65 Death sentences between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017 According to the information received, national courts in Belarus imposed three death sentences during the reporting period. Given that the Criminal Code of Belarus forbids imposing the death penalty on women, only men above the age 63  “Global Report - Death sentences and executions 2016”, Amnesty International, 11 April 2017, page 10, <https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/death-penalty/>. 64  The Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, as amended up to July 2013, envisages the death penalty for fourteen crimes: Art 122 (2): “Unleashing or conducting a war of aggression”, Art 124 (2): “Act of Terrorism directed against the representative of a foreign state or international organization”, Art 126 (3): “Act of International Terrorism”, Art. 127: “Genocide”, Art. 128: ‘Crimes against humanity”, Art. 134: “Use of weapons of mass destruction”, Art 135 (3): “Violation of laws and customs of war”, Art 139 (2): “Murder with attenuating circumstances, Art 289 (2) “Act of Terrorism”, Art. 356 (2): “Treason to the State connected with murder”, Art 357 (3): “Plot, or other actions, taken with a purpose to take over governmental power”, Art 359 (2): “Act of Terrorism directed against state or public official”, Art. 360 (2): “Sabotage”, Art. 362: “Murder of an employee of internal affairs bodies”.< http://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/ru/by/by086ru.pdf>. 65  “Belarus: Fourth death sentence issued before New Year: Kiryl Kazachok”, Amnesty International, 13 January 2017, <https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/ua01617.pdf>. 24