News
Execution of Zhuk and Yuzepchuk direct insult to UN HR Committee, says expert
The UN Human Rights Committee released a statement on the recent execution of Andrei Zhuk and Vasil Yzepchuk, saying that ‘the Belarusian Government had flagrantly violated its obligations under the Optional Protocol.’ Read more…
Viasna’s activists detained
Four members of the Human Rights Center Viasna Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovich, Iryna Toustsik and Siarhei Sys were detained by the police while staging a picket against the execution of Andrei Zhuk and Vasil Yuzepchuk in front of the Presidential Administration building in Minsk. Read more…
Council of Europe condemns executions in Belarus
The Council of Europe strongly condemns the execution of Andrei Zhuk and of Vasily Yuzepchuk in Belarus. Death penalty is barbaric and degrading, and this is why it has been abolished by the Council of Europe through Protocol 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights. The authorities of Belarus are the only remaining ones in Europe who execute people. Read more…
Viasna and BHC’s statement on execution of Zhuk and Yuzepchuk
Administration of pre-trial prison № 1 refused to take food, brought for Andrey Zhuk by his mother, and informed her, that death sentences, passed on her son and Vasilij Uzepchuk in summer, 2009, were carried out. The authorities cynically ignored the demands of the Belarusian human rights defenders and The UN Human Rights Committee not to execute the condemned, while their appeals were considered in the Committee. Read more…
Belarus carries out two executions
Amnesty International is calling on the President of Belarus Alyaksandr Lukashenka to establish an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty after it was revealed two men were executed at the end of last week. Read more…
Senator Smirnov: Belarus may abolish death penalty
Yevgeny Smirnov, Chairman of the Legislation and State Development Commission of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus, does not rule a possibility that the capital punishment will be eventually abolished in Belarus. The senator made this statement as he addressed the chairmen of regional and municipal courts at the Council of the Republic on 18 March, BelTA has learnt. Read more…
Valiantsin Stefanovich: Human rights defenders welcome the participation of official representatives of Belarus in the 4th World Congress Against Death Penalty
The 4th World Congress against the Death Penalty took place in Geneva at the end of February. More than 1 500 lawyers, representatives of human rights organizations, well-known civil and political activists from almost 100 countries took part in the work of this forum. Read more…
Switzerland hosts world congress against death penalty
Over a thousand human rights activists and lawyers from all over the world participate in the World Congress against the Death Penalty opened today in Geneva, Switzerland. Belarus is represented by activists of the Human Rights Activists against the Death Penalty campaign Valiantsin Stefanovich and Tatsiana Reviaka. Read more…
Human rights defender Tamara Chikunova voices concern over retention of death penalty in Belarus
In the beginning of February, Tamara Chikunova, a well-known advocate of the death penalty abolition in Uzbekistan, paid a visit to Belarus. During a meeting with members of the HRC Viasna she told them about the problems one can face while defending the right to life. Chairperson of the Mothers against Death Penalty and Torture NGO also expressed her concern over the retention of the death penalty in Belarus and stated her wish to facilitate its final abolition. Read more…
MP: life sentence can be as inhuman as death penalty
Members of the House of Representatives think it may take ten years to abolish the death penalty. Read more…
39% of Belarusians support death penalty abolishment
39% of Belarusians support the idea of abolishment of the capital punishment and 48% are against it. This is the result of a recent survey conducted by the director of a sociometric laboratory “NOVAK” Andrei Vardamatski. Read more…
PACE welcomes creation of task group on death penalty at Belarus’ Parliament
Mevlut Cavusoglu, the chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) welcomes the creation of the task group to study death penalty at the National Assembly of Belarus. He made this statement in his speech to the members of the assembly, BelTA learnt from the PACE press service. Read more…
The Death Penalty in Belarus in 2009
The year of 2009 failed to become a turning point in the abolition or the declaration of a moratorium on the death penalty in Belarus. Belarus is still the only country in Europe and in the ex-Soviet area that keeps passing and executing death sentences. At the same time, for the first time in the history of independent Belarus the issue of the death penalty appeared in the forefront of wide public attention. Read more…
Mongolian President announced death penalty moratorium
Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj has announced a moratorium on the death penalty, and called for the punishment to be abolished. Read more…
Viktar Huminski: ‘Belarus has directly come to starting thorough, transparent and wide discussion on abolishing the death penalty’
Activists of the campaign Human rights activists against death penalty in Belarus received an answer to their address to the Chamber of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus. Read more…
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