RUSSIA’S DEATH PENALTY
by Nargiz Asadova
Kommersant, Russia
June 29 2006
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg considered
the Resolution "Position of the Parliamentary Assembly as Regards
the Council of Europe Member and Observer States which Have Not
Abolished the Death Penalty." Russia is the only member state that
has not legislatively abolished the death penalty and criticism of
that fact begins at the top of the document. "The death penalty has
been abolished in all Council of Europe member states, with just one
exception…" the document reads. "More than ten years after accession,
the Russian Federation retains the death penalty in its legislation,
although it does respect the moratorium on the executions it decided
in 1996… The Assembly… made repeated appeals to the Russian
authorities on the matter of the abolition of the death penalty,
urging them to ratify immediately Protocol No. 6 to the European
Convention on Human Rights. It points out that the deadline initially
set for honouring this commitment passed in 1999." PACE passed similar
resolutions in 1999, 2002 and 2005. The difference is that now Russia
is the chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, which is responsible
for the implementation of the assembly’s demands.
In addition to being the only member state not to ratify Protocol No.
6, on abolition of the death penalty in peacetime, Russia is one of
only three countries, along with Armenia and Azerbaijan, that have
not signed Protocol No. 13, abolishing the death penalty altogether,
although seven nations have yet to ratify it.
In spite of the importance of the topic, only 20 of the 315
representatives to the assembly were present at the session. That may
be due to the fact that the session was held at the end of the day on
which summer sales begin in France. Russian representative Konstantin
Kosachev took part in the session. He told assembly members that
"I do not intend to make excuses for Russia. I myself am a supporter
of the ratification of Protocol No. 6. But I want to remind you that
abolition of the death penalty is not so much Russia’s obligation to
the Council of Europe as our own choice. It is a norm of the Russian
Constitution that was passed in 1993."
All of the Russian representatives in the assembly have expressed
their support for the abolition of the death penalty at some time,
as has Federation Council speaker Sergey Mironov, who was present at
the PACE session. Standing with PACE President Rene van der Linden at
a press conference after the session, Mironov said that "at present,
a majority could be reached in the State Duma and Federation Council
in a discussion of that issue. But that does not mean that the sixth
protocol will be ratified soon. The majority of the population of
Russia is in favor of preserving the death penalty for merciless
terrorist crimes, particularly those in Beslan."
Russia is not the only country criticized in the resolution. It also
resolves to "include on its agenda by the end of 2006 the question
of the suspension of Japan’s and the United States’ observer status
if no progress on this question has been made by then" and recalls
that 1016 executions have taken place in the United States since
death penalty was restored in 1977 and eight executions in Japan
since 2001. Other countries are mentioned as well.
The resolution passed by a vote of 17 to 2.