capital punishment in the future. The only exception applies to States that, at the time of ratification or accession, made a reservation that provides for the application of the death penalty in time of war pursuant to a conviction for a most serious crime of a military nature committed during wartime. As of 30 June 2001, the Second Optional Protocol has been ratified by 45 States worldwide, including 31 OSCE participating States14. 3.2. Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (hereafter European Convention on Human Rights or ECHR) provides for the total abolition of the death penalty in times of peace15. Article 1 states that “the death penalty shall be abolished” and that “no one shall be condemned to such penalty or executed”. According to Article 2, States Parties may retain the death penalty for crimes committed in time of war or of imminent threat of war. It is, however, specified that where this is so, the death penalty shall be applied only in the instances laid down by the law and in accordance with its provisions. Protocol No. 6 has become the most effective instrument for the abolition of the death penalty within the OSCE region, in particular since the Council of Europe made it mandatory in 1994 for new member states to commit themselves upon accession to put in place a moratorium immediately and to ratify Protocol No. 6 within a certain time-limit. In case of non-compliance, the Council of Europe may impose sanctions such as the suspension of the rights of representation and thus enforce the implementation of the member State’s commitments. As of 30 June 2001 the Protocol has been ratified by 39 countries and signed by three (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russian Federation). Turkey is the only member state of the Council of Europe that has neither ratified nor signed it16. 8