KYRGYZSTAN JOINS CONVENTION AGAINST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Tolekan Ismailova, the head of the 'Citizens Against Corruption' human rights centre, announced that the Kyrgyz delegation to the United Nations voted to join the UN convention banning the use of the death penalty. Although the resolution is not binding, Ismailova welcomed it as "a real step towards humanizing life" and called on the Kyrgyz government to introduce "the practice of reviewing convicts' cases every five years" in order to "relieve our prisons and reduce the number of convicts."