government: republic
state of civil and political rights: Partly free
constitution: 27 June 2010
legal system: based on French and Russian laws
legislative system: unicameral Supreme Council or Jorgorku Kenesh
judicial system: Supreme Court; Constitutional Court, Higher Court of Arbitration; Local Courts
religion: Muslim 75%, Russian Orthodox 20%, other 5%
death row:
year of last executions: 0-0-0
death sentences: 0
executions: 0
international treaties on human rights and the death penalty:International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
1st Optional Protocol to the Covenant
Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (aiming to the abolition of the death penalty)
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Statute of the International Criminal Court (which excludes the death penalty) (only signed)
situation:
On June 27, 2007 Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed legislation amending Kyrgyzstan's criminal codes and abolishing the death penalty.
According to the law, death penalty sentences will be replaced with life sentences. The legislation also mandates that arrest warrants be issued by courts and that prison sentences for some crimes be reduced. The Kyrgyzstan constitution was amended in January to state that "no one in the Kyrgyz Republic can be deprived of life," which abolished the use of capital punishment in the central Asian country. On December 5, 1998, then President Askar Akayev established a two-year moratorium that was subsequently renewed annually. Akayev’s government fell under a popular revolt sparked by disputed parliamentary elections in February 2005. Akayev’s 15-year rule came to an official end with his resignation as president in April. Acting president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, on April 28, 2005, said that Kyrgyzstan must abolish the death penalty. "I suggest that we consider exclusion of the death penalty clause from the constitution and its replacement with a lifetime sentence," he said at a constitutional conference in Bishkek. Bakiev won a landslide victory in July 2005 polls and took office as president in August 2005.
On December 19, 2016, once again Kyrgyzstan voted in favour, but did not co-sponsored as previously, of the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.
On 29 September 2017, Kyrgyzstan voted in favour of the Resolution on the Death Penalty at the 36° session of the UN Council on Human Rights.
