A/HRC/15/19 D. Countries that have ratified international instruments providing for the abolition of the death penalty 6. There are one international and three regional instruments in force committing States parties to abolishing the death penalty: the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty; Protocols No. 6 and No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights; and the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty. Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights concerns the abolition of the death penalty in peacetime. The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights provide for the total abolition of the death penalty, but allow States wishing to do so to retain the death penalty in wartime if they make a reservation to that effect upon ratification. Protocol No. 13 concerns the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances, including for acts committed in times of war and of imminent threat of war. 7. On 15 December 2009, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights marked the twentieth anniversary of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by calling for the universal abolition of capital punishment and urging all States to ratify the Protocol.1 The High Commissioner recalled the reasons for her opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances, including the fundamental nature of the right to life, the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people by mistake, the absence of proof that the death penalty serves as a deterrent, and the inappropriately vengeful character of the sentence. The High Commissioner noted that 140 States no longer carried out the penalty, and that the 72 States parties to the Second Optional Protocol were duty-bound not to execute anybody, to take all necessary steps to abolish the death penalty definitively, and not to extradite individuals to a country where they would face the death penalty. She urged those States still using the death penalty to place a formal moratorium on its use, with the aim of ultimately ratifying the Optional Protocol and abolishing the death penalty altogether. 8. During the reporting period, Brazil acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on 25 September 2009, with a reservation to article 2. In February 2010, the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan approved a law on accession to the Second Optional Protocol, however formal accession to the Protocol did not take place during the reporting period. 9. There were no new ratifications or accessions to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty during the reporting period. 10. There were no new ratifications or accessions to Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights during the reporting period. Spain ratified Protocol No. 13 to the Covenant, which came into force on 1 April 2010, with a declaration related to Gibraltar. E. Countries observing a moratorium on executions 11. A number of new moratoriums on the application of the death penalty in countries that retain the punishment were declared in the reporting period, while existing moratoriums were maintained in a number of others. Full details on this issue will be 1 4 “UN human rights chief calls for universal abolition of the death penalty”, UN News Centre, 15 December 2009. GE.10-15029