Global Action to Abolish the Death Penalty

This is a global project covering activity in three regions: Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe and South Caucasus and Central Asia. This is a two-year EC funded project.

The Global project objective is challenging the Death Penalty where it exists or the use of life imprisonment as a standard alternative, also the program will strive to provide global expertise on the problems of using Life Imprisonment as a standard alternative to the Death Penalty, where it has been abolished or there is a moratorium.

As for the final beneficiaries in the target regions and more specifically in South Caucasus are prisoners. The outcome of the project would be the significant progress in the areas of public support for the abolition of the death Penalty, policy and legislative change to achieve abolition and awareness of the issues surrounding life imprisonment in the south Caucasus.

The South Caucasus states of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are all members of the Council of Europe and have all abolished the death penalty in accordance with their obligations on joining. However in each case there are specific issues arising that argue for the situation to be examined in more detail. Common to all three states is the issue of treatment of lifers. Conditions of such prisoners are reported to be well below international standards, highly restrictive and often jeopardizing to physical and mental health. This is particularly damaging given the per se long-term nature of their sentences and limited or non-existent opportunities to be considered for early release.

Armenia - In January 2004 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe expressed concern at the process by which death sentences were commuted upon abolition. The Law on the Application of the Criminal Code foresaw commutation to the life imprisonment via the courts; however this was done by the President of Armenia. PACE urged the Armenian authorities to examine each case individually but this has not been done. There are 77 life sentenced prisoners currently.

Azerbaijan - Eighty – seven former death row prisoners are serving life sentences. Reports suggest that their conditions of the imprisonment are not in compliance with European and International standards. In the internationally unrecognized separatist region of Karabakh, upon abolition in 2003 by the de facto authorities death sentences were replaced with sentences of 15 years’ imprisonment.

Georgia – In Georgia the total number of life sentenced prisoners are 64, 58 of them are in Prison #6, in Rustavi, 7 life sentenced prisoners in Prison #7 and 1 in Prison #5.
Two internationally unrecognized separatist regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, retain the death penalty in law. The de facto Criminal Code in force in Abkhazia is that of the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia of 1961, with a number of changes and amendments, and provides for the death penalty as an exceptional punishment until repealed in full. It is envisaged for the nine peacetime and 15 military crimes in time of conflict. Juveniles cannot be sentenced to death nor pregnant women. The de facto authorities declared a moratorium on executions in 1993. According to the unofficial figures in 2002 there were thirteen persons on the death row. The UN Special Rapporteur visited two prisoners on death row in 2005, one of whom was a woman in poor state of Health.
The de facto Criminal Code in force in South Ossetia is the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of 1996, which envisages the death penalty for five crimes. Juveniles and women cannot be sentenced to death. There has been an unofficial de facto moratorium on executions in place since 1996, following the example of the Russian Federation.

In the light of the aforementioned facts the main aims of the programme in the South Caucasus region are the following:

research and advocacy work aimed at supporting the abolition of the death penalty in Abkhazia and South Ossetia

Research into the situation (legal and physical) of former death row prisoners principally, but also other long-term and/or life sentenced prisoners with the aim of:

Publicising unresolved problems associated with their status, and

Promoting possible solutions to problems, including those suggested in UN, Council of Europe general and country reports, or more general standards or guidelines

Undertaking public awareness campaigns to highlight important issues surrounding long-term and life prisoners, so as to influence the decisions taken by the states contemplating abolition as well as those who have already abolished the death penalty.