A/HRC/12/45 page 5 further States ratified the Optional Protocol, namely Argentina on 2 September 2008, Chile on 26 September 2008 and Nicaragua on 25 February 2009. Chile formulated a reservation authorized under article 2, paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol such that it may apply the death penalty in time of war pursuant to a conviction for a most serious crime of a military nature committed during wartime. Argentina ratified without reservation. 13. There were no new ratifications or accessions to Protocol No. 6 to ECHR during the reporting period. 14. One State, Italy, ratified Protocol No. 13 to ECHR during the reporting period, it entering into force on 1 July 2009. 15. Argentina ratified the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty on 18 June 2008, and Chile ratified the same protocol on 4 August 2008, the latter entering a reservation authorized under the Protocol to apply the death penalty in wartime in accordance with international law, for extremely serious crimes of a military nature. E. Countries observing a moratorium on executions 16. No new moratoriums on the application of the death penalty in countries that retain the punishment were declared in the reporting period. A number of existing moratoriums were maintained. In Jamaica, which has maintained a moratorium since 1988, the Parliament voted to maintain the death penalty in November 2008 in the context of discussions around a new Charter of Rights and Freedoms Bill. No subsequent executions have been reported. F. 17. Countries which have reintroduced the use of the death penalty, extended its scope or resumed executions In December 2008, Saint Kitts and Nevis carried out its first execution in 10 years. 18. In July 2008, the President of Liberia approved amendments to the country’s Penal Law which named armed robbery, hijacking and terrorism as capital offences where death occurs during the commission of the crime. The amendments introduced the alternative sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, as well as removed the requirement for the execution to take place in public. Although the death penalty has remained on the statute books in Liberia, the country had acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to ICCPR on 16 September 2005 and thus committed itself not to execute anyone within its jurisdiction and additionally, to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction. 19. Although maintaining the death penalty, Papua New Guinea has not carried out an execution since the country’s independence in 1975. According to recent reports, the Ministry of Justice has undertaken a process during the reporting period to draft guidelines allowing for the commencement of executions. III. ENFORCEMENT OF THE DEATH PENALTY 20. As has been noted in previous reports of the Secretary-General, up-to-date and accurate global figures on the application of the death penalty are difficult to obtain. This difficulty arises