DUSHANBE, May 18, 2011, Asia-Plus — Issues related to international trends towards death penalty abolition, the situation of death penalty in Central Asia and prospects of declaring Central Asia death-penalty-free region were discussed yesterday here at an international conference entitled “Central Asia without the Death Penalty.”
Organized by the League of Women Lawyers and the Government of Tajikistan under support of the Tajik Branch of Open Society Institute/Assistance Foundation (OSI/AF-Tajikistan) and the Government of Switzerland in the framework of Switzerland-Tajikistan Human Rights Dialogue, the conference brought together representatives from government bodies and NGOs from the countries of Central Asia and Europe as well as experts from international organizations and representatives of diplomatic missions and international organizations active in Tajikistan. Ms. Ruth Dreifuss, Member of the International Commission Against Death Penalty (ICDP) and former President of Switzerland, attended the conference as a special guest.
Jumakhon Davlatov, State Adviser to the Tajik President for Legal Matters, noted that measures taken by the Tajik government showed that Tajikistan would not revert to the practice of the death penalty. “Sooner or later, our country will fully abolish the death penalty,” he said, noting that abolition of the death penalty was a complicated and long process.
According to him, the full abolition of the death penalty and introduction of appropriate amendments to the country’s legislation will be come possible if the population supports this decision and it is established that non-use of death penalty does not affect the rate of crimes in the country.
Speaking at the conference, Ms. Dreifuss noted that were not evidences that use of death penalty was an efficient instrument in crime prevention. There are many other efficient ways to prevent crime, she noted. According to her, every year, death penalty is globally used against 10,000 people and quite often with violation of international law.
We will recall Tajikistan introduced a moratorium on executions and the handing down of death sentences on July 15, 2004. The country’s legislation reduced the scope of its death penalty by limiting the number of crimes punishable by death from 15 to five and revoking its use against women and minors.
The Tajik delegation stated the clear political will to fully abolish capital punishment in the future at the annual OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw on September 30, 2009. This commitment was reinforced again in April 2010, when President Emomali Rahmon established a working group with the aim of analyzing the social and legal aspects of abolishing the death penalty in Tajikistan. Several NGOs have supported the government’s intentions in this area through the development of projects aimed at raising awareness of the issue and engaging in a dialogue on abolishing the death penalty and the general question of the right to life.
