With moratorium since 2003, Kazakhstan mulls abolishing death penalty

The conference focused on the process towards abolition of the death penalty in the Central Asian region, and the challenges the countries face after introducing life imprisonment as an alternative to the death penalty. The conference was jointly organised by Penal Reform International (PRI) Office in Central Asia, Regional Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Central Asia, Embassy of the Netherlands in Kazakhstan, Embassy of Great Britain in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The meeting was held within the PRI's global project on "Progressive Abolition of the Death Penalty and Alternatives that Respect International Human Rights Standards", which is being implemented in 20 countries and financed by the European Union in the amount of one million euros, and supported by the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, the press service of the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Participants of the event included representatives of the presidential administrations, bodies of constitutional control, ministries of justice, agencies responsible for functioning of the penitentiary system, agencies of prosecution and judicial system, non-governmental sector, academic spheres of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as representatives of international organisations and interested embassies.

"The conference will serve to strengthen the cooperation among government agencies, civil society and international organisations seeking the necessary decisions to reform the institution of criminal punishment," Ambassador at Large of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry Madina Dzharbussynova said at the event.

The conference consisted of three sessions, including "Constitutional and Legal Challenges of Death Penalty Abolition Process", "Alternatives to the Death Penalty and Reform of Life Imprisonment System", and "Access to Information on the Death Penalty Abolition and Life Imprisonment".

To date, Kyrgyzstan is the only country in the region to have abolished the death penalty by law. Kazakhstan and Tajikistan still do have the death penalty, however, both have in place a moratorium on sentencing of the death penalty and executions. The presidential decree to declare an indefinite moratorium on the death penalty in Kazakhstan was adopted in December 2003, and at the same time, relevant state authorities were instructed to carry out constant monitoring of the crime situation in the country.

In accordance with the 2007 amendment to the Constitution of Kazakhstan, the death penalty in the country has been abolished except for only two types of crimes, including for terrorist crimes which involve the death of people, and for especially grave crimes committed during wartime, where an offender has the right to seek pardon.

According to the member of the Constitutional Council of Kazakhstan Nikolay Belorukov, the adoption of the moratorium has not led to an increase in crimes in the country.

"It has been over seven years since then (the moratorium). Today, we can state that the rejection of the death penalty, as well as the process of humanisation of the criminal policy, did not result in a surge in crime, and the crime situation remains relatively stable," Interfax news agency cited Belorukov.

He stressed that during the time of the ban on the death penalty, there have not been any social movements which would require removing the moratorium and resuming executions. What is more, "the number of opponents of the death penalty after the moratorium was introduced has only increased," Belorukov added.

The abolition of the death penalty in Central Asia has been closely associated with new challenges in law enforcement, particularly after the introduction of a new form of punishment such as life imprisonment. According to one of the participants of the conference, there are 86 people in Kazakhstan sentenced to life imprisonment, including 28 whose sentences were commuted from the death penalty.

According to Belorukov, from the legislative point of view, there are no obstacles to completely abolishing the death penalty in Kazakhstan, however, the public opinion has to be taken into account.

"The experience of countries which have completely abolished the death penalty shows that this step is always preceded by a large amount of preparatory work, which consists of not only the creation of the legal framework and appropriate organisational and technical conditions, but also a great educational and advocacy work," Belorukov stated.