DUSHANBE, October 10, 2008, Asia-Plus — On the occasion of the World and European Day against the Death Penalty, which is marked on October 10, Mr. Norbert Justin, Head of the European Commission Delegation to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, released a statement, which, in particular, noted that the European Union hopes for full abolition of death penalty in Central Asia’s states.
As far as Kazakhstan is concerned, we welcome this progress and hope that the Central Asian will come to the full death penalty abolition both in law and practice, Mr. Justin noted.
In 2003, the Kazakh government introduced moratorium on the death penalty and an amendment of May 21 2007 to Kazakhstan’s Constitution abolished the death penalty in all cases save for acts of terrorism entailing loss of life and for especially grave crimes committed in wartime.
In other Central Asian counties, moratorium on death penalty has been announced.
In Tajikistan, the president announced the introduction of a moratorium on both the imposition and carrying out of death sentences on April 30 2004 and signed a subsequent law to that effect on July 15 2004. The moratorium, which was applicable from the day of its announcement, is not limited to a specific time frame.
In August 2003, the Tajik president signed legislation abolishing the death penalty for 10 crimes. The death penalty was retained for five crimes: murder with aggravating circumstances, rape with aggravating circumstances, terrorism, biocide, and genocide. On November 30 2004, the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) adopted amendments to the Penal Code that provide for life imprisonment for these five crimes. These amendments were endorsed by the upper house (Majlisi Milli) on February 11 2005 and signed by the president on March 1 2005. The Criminal Execution Code has also been amended. The amendments introduce life imprisonment as an alternative to the death penalty for men between 18 and 63 years of age.
In the meantime, according to the EU’s data, 92 countries and territories have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, 10 countries have abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes such as wartime crimes, and 35 countries can be considered abolitionist in practice. They retain the death penalty in law but have not carried out any executions for the past 10 years or more and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions. This makes a total of 137 countries which have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Since 2005, ten countries have abolished the death penalty. However, figures of death penalty application around the world still remain high. During 2007, at least 1,252 people were executed in 24 countries, and at least 3,347 people were sentenced to death in 51 countries. 88 per cent of all known executions took place in five countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the USA.
