Kazakhstan has recently abolished the death penalty by permanently freezing the 20-year-old moratorium on the punishment in the country. If this moratorium would have been lifted now, the death penalty would have been allowed in the country. But now, the death penalty has been permanently abolished in Kazakhstan.
Key Points
- Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has recently signed the parliamentary ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
- Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a document that states the commitment of the country to abolish the death penalty.
- The Second Optional Protocol was signed by the United Nations permanent envoy from Kazakhstan in September 2020 and was sent to the parliament for ratification.
- It was in the year 2003, that Kazakhstan put a moratorium on awarding the death penalty to people.
- However, it was being granted in exceptional cases including terror acts.
- In 2004, the country introduced Life imprisonment as an alternative punishment to the death penalty.
As of now, many other countries have also abolished death penalties or capital punishment. Out of the 195 United Nations members, 105 nations have abolished it while 54 countries still retain it like India, China, the United States, Pakistan, etc.