Possible
return of the death penalty to Russia’s law enforcement practices
is the urgent issue of Russia’s political agenda today.
On April 16, 1997, Russia, within the framework of its obligations
under the European Convention on Human Rights signed and ratified
in 1996, signed Protocol 6 envisaging abolishment of the death
penalty in time of peace. Up to now the Protocol has not been
ratified by the State Duma (Ed. Russian parliament). Also
on February 2, 1999, the Constitutional Court ruled out that
the death penalty can not be imposed by [Russia’s] courts
until jury courts in which competence lays the imposing of
capital punishment are introduced in all the regions of the
Russian Federation.
In accordance with the Federal Law “On Bringing into Force
of the Criminal Proceedings Code of the RF” a jury court should
be formed in the Chechen Republic by January 1, 2010. On October
11, 2009, elections to the local self-government bodies took
place in the Chechen Republic, which will allow to form a
jury court. This will finalise the process of formation of
jury courts all over Russia. From this moment all the legal
obstacles for returning of the capital punishment – the death
penalty – into the law enforcement practices will disappear.
We presume that delay with ratification of Protocol 6 can
not serve as a basis for return of the death penalty practices
to the courts. According to the general international practices,
having signed Protocol 6 Russia has to observe it.
Restoration of the institute of the death penalty even for
exceptional cases will justify for the citizens the use of
extreme measures of violence by the state, and, at the same
time can lead to irrecoverable errors. There may emerge demands
to broaden this punitory institute, and cases of vigilantism
over those accused in especially cruel crimes may become more
frequent. Such developments sharply contradict the plans of
formation of legal consciousness of the Russian citizens and
building of a law-governed state in our country.
Moreover, abolishment of a ten-year moratorium will provoke
great embarrassment in the international community and will
affect the work of the Russian Federation in the international
organisations. Restoration of the institute of the death penalty
will become a grave violation of the European Convention on
Human Rights and will question Russia’s membership in the
Council of Europe depriving Russian citizens of a possibility
to apply to the international courts for protection of their
rights.
The Bureau of the YABLOKO party considers it necessary that
the State Duma should urgently ratify Protocol 6 to the European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms concerning the abolition of the death penalty.
Sergei Mitrokhin,
Chairman of the YABLOKO party
See also:
Human
Rights
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