Kazakhstan Signs Global Treaty to Abolish Death Penalty

The Republic of Kazakhstan has joined the ranks of nations that have for­mal­ly com­mit­ted to abol­ish­ing the death penalty. 

On September 23, 2020, in con­junc­tion with the 75^th ses­sion of the United Nations General Assembly, Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced that the coun­try had signed the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which com­mits sig­na­to­ry nations to abol­ish the death penal­ty. The action was tak­en as a step “[t]o ful­fill a fun­da­men­tal right to life and human dig­ni­ty,” Tokayev said.

Kazakhstan is the 88^th nation to become a sig­na­to­ry or par­ty to the Second Optional Protocol. Geographically, the pre­dom­i­nant­ly cen­tral Asian nation is the world’s ninth largest coun­try, whose west­ern­most lands cross the Ural River and stretch into Europe. 

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, praised Kazakhstan’s deci­sion. ​“This news encour­ages us as Kazakhstan gets clos­er to join the ever-grow­ing fam­i­ly of nations that have left this shame­ful pun­ish­ment behind,” she said. ​“Kazakhstan must now take the final step by abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty in law for all crimes and rat­i­fy­ing the Optional Protocol without reservations.”

Amnesty International’s 2019 annu­al Global Report on Death Sentences and Executions report­ed that, as of December 31, 2019, more than two-thirds of the world’s coun­tries had abol­ished the death penal­ty in law or prac­tice. 142 nations had either abol­ished the death penal­ty under the country’s con­sti­tu­tion or laws or had not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in more than a decade. 56 nations retained capital punishment.

Kazakhstan is one of three coun­tries on the European con­ti­nent — along with Russia and Belarus — in which the death penal­ty is autho­rized under domes­tic law. However, both Kazakhstan and Russia have long­stand­ing mora­to­ria on exe­cu­tions. Tajikistan, which also has a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, is now the only Central Asian coun­try that has­n’t signed or rat­i­fied the Second Optional Protocol. 

At the start of 2020, Kazakhstan had one per­son on its death row.