South American activists campaign against death penalty in Belarus
An office of the human rights organization Amnesty International in Paraguay launched a regional campaign against the secrecy that accompanies the death penalty in Belarus, while calling on the Belarusian President Lukashenka to amend Article 175 of the Criminal Executive Code.
The campaign activists are expected to arrange seminars and debates on the issue of the death penalty, calling people to sign a petition to President Lukashenka.
The petition, in particular, states that “the authorities refuse to return the bodies of those executed to their families, do not reveal the place of burial. Amnesty International has been for a long time concerned about the extreme secrecy that accompanies the theme of the death penalty in Belarus. Those arrested are at risk of being subjected to torture in order to force them to “confess,” those sentenced to death do not have access to the appropriate appeal procedures. The punishment is executed by a shot in the head. Convicts are not informed of the execution of sentences up to several hours or even minutes before their death.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception. The UN Human Rights Committee and other agencies have ruled to declare that the use of the death penalty in Belarus violates human rights of convicted persons and their families. The death penalty violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
