Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend I. Alizadeh / The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called Russia to sign all the corresponding documents on removing the death penalty, as was stated in the report of Pietro Marcenaro, the Italian Parliamentarian, on the removal of the death penalty on an international scale.
"The corresponding documents, adopted during the Soviet Union were not recognized by all countries. The 6th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights was not ratified by Russia, in spite of at the joining the Council of Europe, Russia received its corresponding duties," Marcenaro stressed.
"The 13th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights demands removal of the death penalty during any time, including during war and a war-danger period. This document has not yet been signed by Azerbaijan and Russia. Armenia, Spain, Italy, Poland, France, and Latvia have not ratified the document yet," Marcenaro stressed in the statement.
The Assembly calls to sign and ratify these documents before making decisions by the aforesaid countries.
At the beginning of 2007, the UN offered to give international status to the removal of the death penalty. PACE supports this initiative and intends to back the efforts of the Council of Europe.
The number of prisoners sentenced to the death penalty in the world decreased. From 1997 to 2006, eighty-nine countries removed the death penalty.