The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 2.3 De-facto abolitionist participating States The Russian Federation and Tajikistan remain the only de-facto abolitionist countries in the OSCE region. Both states, retain capital punishment for crimes committed in peacetime, but executions are not carried out given that moratoria have been established in 1996 and 2004, respectively. Within the reporting period, neither Russia nor Tajikistan have ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, nor has Russia ratified Protocol No. 13 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances. In the Russian Federation, although the application of the death penalty has been prohibited since 1996, with the prohibition reiterated by the Constitutional Court in 1999 and 2009,135 capital punishment is still mentioned in Federal Legislation and formally listed as one of the types of criminal punishment. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for the death penalty as an exceptional measure for five types of offences namely aggravated murder, assassination attempts against a state or public figure, attempts on the life of a person administering justice or preliminary investigations, attempts on the life of a law-enforcement official and genocide. The Criminal Code further specifies that the death penalty is not imposed against women, as well as offenders under the age of 18 or over 65 at the time of sentencing.136 The Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation also contains provisions on the death penalty.137 On 30 November 2016, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers adopted a decision on the abolition of the death penalty in Europe, a strong and urgent call on the Russian Federation, as the only 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 of the death penalty and to ratify Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights.138 According to the draft report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of Tajikistan, the Suspension of the Death Penalty Act is in force and a moratorium on the death penalty is in place. Amendments to the Criminal Code were introduced to include maximum imprisonment up to 20 years. Transition to 135  “Russian court extends moratorium on death penalty”, Reuters, 19 November 2009, <http://www.reuters. com/article/idUSLJ330478>; see also, “Russia to decide on death penalty moratorium”, BBC News, 10 November 2009, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8352090.stm>. 136  Art. 59, para. 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. 137  Art. 31, 51, 301, 310 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. 138  Op. cit., note 73. 39