Belarusian human rights activists to fight against death penalty

A campaign “Human Rights Activists against Death Penalty” has started in Belarus. The aim of the campaign is abolition of capital punishment and Belarus’s joining the European values.

Representatives of the human rights community of the country have prepared a petition, signed by famous Belarusian public figures and common Belarusians, which will be handed to the authorities.

“It is horrible that death penalties are executed. It is demonstrates brutality of the Belarusian repressive system, including courts, procuracy, and penal facilities. In my view, Belarus continue holding onto the Soviet past, where capital punishment was common,” said Ales Byalyatski, human rights activist and vice president of the International Federation of Human Rights.

Belarus is signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which doesn’t provide compulsory abolition of capital punishment, but refers countries to restriction and abolition of death penalty. But the Republic of Belarus hasn’t joint the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Right (adopted by the UN General Assembly December 15, 1989), aimed at capital punishment abolition. States, which signed this Protocol, must abolish this type of pounishment.

At the moment, Belarus is the only country in Europe, where death penalties are executed. After Uzbekistan abolished capital punishment on January 1, 2008, our country remains the only post-Soviet state, using this type of punishment.