Brest: action against death penalty
On 10 August in Brest members of Young Front held an action for the abolition of death penalty in Belarus. The activists held out leaflets of Amnesty International in Savetskaya Street in the center of the city.
These leaflets contain an address to be sent to A.Lukashenka and the Belarusian government. The international human rights community calls on the government to immediately introduce a moratorium on the death penalty with the view of complete refusal from it in conformity with Resolution of the UN General Assembly #63/168, of 18 December 2008, and also to immediately replace the issued death penalties with prison terms.
The AI address looks like a postcard, addressed to “Alexander Lukashenka, the President”. Any of the 150 citizens of Brest who received such postcards could put in their name and send them to support the death penalty abolition.
The action lasted for about 20 minutes, without any detentions or provocations. Most people demonstrated an interested and positive attitude.
Bear in mind that Belarus is the only country in Europe and on the post-Soviet space that still uses the capital punishment.
In January 2009 Belarus’ human rights activists launched a campaign for abolition of the death penalty and prepared an appropriate petition to the authorities, that was signed by famous figures and ordinary people. Human rights activists of Belarus and AI hope that the government will finally proceed to decisive actions, aimed at stopping executions.
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement that counts 2.2 million people from over 150 countries and campaigns for cessation of gross human rights abuses.
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