The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area of China.42 Despite this, the global trend towards abolition continued in 2015 with four countries abolishing the death penalty for all crimes, including the OSCE participating State Mongolia. OSCE participating States have committed to ensure that where capital punishment has not been abolished, death sentences may be imposed only for the most serious crimes and in a manner not contrary to international commitments.43 Furthermore, they have committed to keep the question of the death penalty under consideration and to co-operate with relevant international organisations.44 In Copenhagen in 1991, the participating States recalled the adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations, of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, and noted the provisions of the 6th Protocol to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), concerning the abolition of the death penalty. OSCE participating States have also committed to ensure that no one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and to prohibit such acts, and to take effective legislative, judicial and other measures to prevent and punish such practices.45 In Budapest in 1994, OSCE participating States recognized the importance of international norms as laid down in international treaties on human rights, in particular the United Nations Convention against Torture (CAT) and the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment, in the context of the elimination of all forms of torture. All OSCE participating States, excluding the Holy See, are parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and all participating States are parties to the Convention against Torture (CAT). These include the two retentionist states, Belarus and the United States of America. Forty-seven OSCE participating States are state parties to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), and 28 OSCE participating States are members of the European Union (EU), with its Charter of Fundamental Rights (EU Charter). Article 6 of the ICCPR protects the right to life but allows the use of the death penalty under specific conditions. Among these conditions, the death penalty “may be imposed only for the most serious crimes,” and must be in accordance with both the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime and the provisions of the 42  Amnesty International, op. Cit., note 24. 43  Vienna Document, op.cit., note 1, para. 24. 44  Ibid.; Copenhagen Document, op. cit., note 2, para. 17.1 and 17.7; Document of the Moscow Meeting of the Conference on the Human dimension of the CSCE (Moscow 1991), para. 36, <http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/14310>. 45  See Vienna Document, op.cit., note 1, ; Copenhagen Document, op. cit., note 2; Paris (1990), <http://www. osce.org/mc/39516>; Budapest (1994), <http://www.osce.org/mc/39554>; Istanbul (1999) para. 21, <http:// www.osce.org/mc/39569>; Ljubljana (2005), <http://www.osce.org/mc/18778>; Helsinki (2008), <http:// www.osce.org/node/36545>; Athens (2009), <http://www.osce.org/mc/63629>. 16