The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2017

By Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), on 1 January 2017

OSCE participating States have made a number of commitments regarding the death penalty, including considering the potential abolition of capital punishment, to exchange information toward that end and to make information on the use of the death penalty available to the public.1 Where the death penalty is still in use, participating States have agreed that it could be imposed only for the most serious crimes and only in line with international commitments.2 In light of these commitments and its mandate, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) monitors trends and new developments regarding human rights standards and practices among OSCE participating States related to the death penalty. The findings are presented each year in the Background Paper on the Status of the Death Penalty in the OSCE Area. The background paper is based on the information provided by participating States, in the form of responses to ODIHR questionnaires. The information from their responses has been included in the present report, to the extent possible, and is supplemented with information from international and regional human rights bodies, non-governmental organizations and media reports.

• Document type International law - Regional body
• Themes list International law, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,