A/HRC/4/78 page 3 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Human Rights Council, by decision 2/102, requested the High Commissioner for Human Rights to “continue with the fulfilment of her activities, in accordance with all previous decisions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and to update the relevant reports and studies”. On the current issue of the death penalty, a comprehensive annual report (E/CN.4/2006/83) was submitted to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixty-second session pursuant to resolution 2005/59. The information in the report remains relevant. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) understands decision 2/102 to preserve the previous annual reporting cycle in respect of this issue until otherwise decided by the Council. The current report to the Council accordingly addresses developments in respect of the death penalty over the last year. 2. The present supplemental report prepared by OHCHR pursuant to Human Rights Council decision 2/102 covers selected developments at the international level and is based on information available in the public domain from intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations. 3. Following the practice adopted in the quinquennial reports of the Secretary-General, countries are classified in the present report as completely abolitionist, abolitionist for ordinary crimes, de facto abolitionist, or retentionist. Countries that are abolitionist for all crimes, whether in peacetime or in wartime, are regarded as completely abolitionist. Countries that are regarded as abolitionist for ordinary crimes are those that abolished the death penalty for all ordinary offences committed in time of peace. In such countries, the death penalty is retained only for exceptional circumstances, such as those which may apply in time of war for military offences, or for crimes against the State, such as treason or armed insurrection. Countries that retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes but have not executed anyone during the past 10 years or more are considered abolitionist de facto. All other countries are defined as retentionist, meaning that the death penalty is in force and executions do take place, although in many retentionist countries such executions might be quite rare. II. CHANGES IN LAW AND PRACTICE 4. Changes in law may include new legislation abolishing or reinstating the death penalty, or restricting or expanding its scope, or amending the legal process applicable to death penalty cases as well as ratifications of international instruments that provide for the abolition or restriction in the application of the death penalty. Changes in practice may cover non-legislative measures with a significant new approach regarding the use of the death penalty; for example, countries may, while retaining the death penalty, announce a moratorium on its application. Such changes might also include measures to commute death sentences. A. Countries which have abolished the death penalty for all crimes 5. In November 2006, Kyrgyzstan adopted a new Constitution in which the death penalty was abolished. In June 2006, Moldova abolished the death penalty by amending its Constitution which provided for the death penalty in exceptional cases. In June 2006, the Philippines repealed legislation that allowed for the death penalty and abolished it for all crimes.