COUNCIL OF EUROPE MAY EXPEL U.S., JAPAN OVER DEATH PENALTY

the United States and Japan may lose their observer status at the Council of Europe if they fail to abolish the death penalty before the end of 2006, said Konstantin Kosachyov, leader of the Russian delegation to the Council's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE).
"The PACE Legal Committee has prepared a draft report on the fulfillment of the legal requirement concerning the ban on the death penalty by states that are members of the Council of Europe or observers at that European international organization," Kosachyov told Interfax.
Kosachyov said the report would be presented at PACE's summer or autumn session.
"As regards Russia, the draft report contains a firm call to ratify the Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, which prescribes a ban on the death penalty," said Kosachyov, who also chairs the State Duma Committee on International Affairs.