Human rights defenders again urge MFA to implement the international undertakings of Belarus
Human rights defenders applied with an open address to the minister of foreign affairs Siarhei Martynau concerning the registration of the individual communication of the death convict Vasil Yuzepchuk by the UN Human Rights Committee.
Representatives of the human rights community of Belarus called on the foreign minister to take all necessary measures for implementation of the international undertakings of the Republic of Belarus. They also insist that the MFA must inform the appropriate state organs about the official note of the UN High Commissioner of 12 October 2009 about registration of the individual communication of Vasil Yuzepchuk and the demand of the Committee to abstain from executing the death sentence till consideration of the case on its merits.
According to paragraph 5.11 of the ruling of the Soviet of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus On the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus the Ministry is charged with supervising the implementation of the international treaties of the Republic of Belarus by the state agencies of the Republic of Belarus and facilitating the implementation of the international treaties of the Republic of Belarus’.
Bear in mind that the Republic of Belarus has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Optional Protocol to it. Thus, the state recognized the competence of the UN Human Rights Committee to consider the individual communications about the supposed violations of any rights enshrined in the Covenant.
‘We decided to address the state organs responsible for supervising the execution of penalties, legality, and also the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as it coordinates and controls the implementation of the international treaties of the Republic of Belarus. We informed these structures that the individual communication of Vasil Yuzepchuk has been registered at the UN Human Rights Committee and, according to the Committee’s rules of procedure and the international undertakings of the Republic of Belarus, the state mustn’t execute the death sentence till consideration of the communication on the merits.
We purposefully give publicity to these facts with the aid of mass media lest representatives of the appropriate state organs would later tell they were unaware of the demand of the UN Human Rights Committee to suspend the execution till consideration of the cases of Vasil Yuzepchuk and Andrei Zhuk on their merits,’ pointed the member of the Human Rights Center ‘Viasna’ Valiantsin Stefanovich.
The human rights defender also stated that similar addresses will be submitted to the prosecutor general Ryhor Vasilevich, the interior minister Anatol Kuliashou and the head of the presidential administration Uladzimir Makei.
