A/HRC/15/19 included in the upcoming report of the Secretary-General, to be submitted to the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session. 12. In January 2010, the President of Mongolia reportedly announced the introduction of a moratorium on the death penalty and stated that he would commute the death sentences of those awaiting execution to sentences of 30 years of imprisonment. In November 2009, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation decided to extend indefinitely a longstanding moratorium on executions in a move towards described as “an irreversible process to abolish the death penalty” that reflected “a trend in international law”. In March 2009, Burkina Faso declared its commitment to abolish the death penalty; in May 2009, it committed to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. During its universal periodic review in February 2010, Madagascar highlighted its long-standing moratorium and pointed out that the death penalty was systematically commuted to life imprisonment. One recommendation made at that session was for Madagascar to sign and ratify the Second Optional Protocol with a view formally to abolishing the death penalty (A/HRC/14/13). 13. According to reports, in Algeria, more than 100 people were sentenced to death in 2009; the long-standing de facto moratorium on executions was, however, maintained.2 In Benin, at least five people were sentenced to death in their absence by the Parakou court of appeal, while a de facto moratorium continued. Although a de facto moratorium also continued in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a number of death sentences were handed down by military courts during the reporting period, including for two nationals of Norway sentenced to death for murder in June 2010. In Ghana, 7 people were sentenced to death in 2009, while 14 death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment; there were no executions during the reporting period. In Lebanon, although a de facto moratorium remains in place, in October 2009, 7 people were sentenced to death for attacks against the Lebanese army, 4 were sentenced to death by a military court for the crime of collaboration with Israel in November 2009, and 16 people (3 in absentia) were sentenced to death on terrorism-related charges between January and April 2010. 14. In Kenya, the President commuted the death sentences of at least 4,000 prisoners in August 2009 to life imprisonment, and ordered a Government study on the impact of the death penalty on crime levels. In Morocco, in July 2009, the death sentences of 32 prisoners were commuted to life imprisonment on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the King’s accession to the throne.3 F. Countries that have reintroduced the use of the death penalty, extended its scope or resumed executions 15. In the Gambia, the President announced in September 2009 that executions would resume; in October, the Director of Public Prosecutions reportedly stated that all prisoners sentenced to death would be executed by hanging as soon as possible. According to reports, 1 person was sentenced to death and at least 12 people were believed to be on death row at the end of the year.4 2 3 4 GE.10-15029 Amnesty International, The death penalty in 2009; Hands off Cain, 2009 Report on the Death Penalty Worldwide; World Coalition against the Death Penalty, Towards a Universal Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty, February 2010. World Coalition against the Death Penalty, “Towards a universal moratorium on the use of the death penalty”, February 2010. Amnesty International, The death penalty in 2009. 5