UN RIGHTS EXPERT CALLS ON BELARUS TO IMPOSE DEATH PENALTY MORATORIUM, HALT EXECUTIONS

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From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 25 Apr 2014 12:00:00 -0400
Subject: UN RIGHTS EXPERT CALLS ON BELARUS TO IMPOSE DEATH PENALTY
MORATORIUM, HALT EXECUTIONS
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

UN RIGHTS EXPERT CALLS ON BELARUS TO IMPOSE DEATH PENALTY MORATORIUM,
HALT EXECUTIONSNew York, Apr 25 2014 12:00PMAn independent United
Nations human rights expert today urged authorities in Belarus, the
only European nation that still retains the death penalty, to impose
an immediate moratorium on the punishment and refrain from carrying
out further executions.

The appeal by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights
in Belarus, Miklós Haraszti, comes after the reported execution of
Pavel Sialiun and a Supreme Court ruling last week upholding the death
sentence against Eduard Lykau, both convicted for murder.

Mr. Haraszti expressed concern about the way death sentences are
carried out in Belarus, and particularly the circumstances of Mr.
Sialiun's execution, including that the date of his execution is not
known, and that his mother was not notified and only learned from his
lawyer that the sentence had been carried out.

"Information on death sentences remains limited for relatives and the
general public and there is a lack of transparency about persons held
on death row, and an inadequate procedure for appeals," the expert
stated in a <"http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14537&LangID=E">news
release. "Annual statistics on the use of the death penalty are not
available, nor are the names of most of those who have been already
executed."

He added that those facing the death penalty, and their relatives, are
not informed of the scheduled date of execution, and that following
the execution, the relatives are not informed of where the body is
buried.

"No reports of executions for a considerable time, despite the
imposition of several new death sentences, had filled the
international community with the hope that Belarus had started a
practical moratorium, which would then lead to a legal moratorium, and
finally to the abolition of capital punishment," Mr. Haraszti said.

An estimated 160 countries have either abolished the death penalty or
no longer practice it since the General Assembly's landmark vote in
2007 calling for a worldwide moratorium on the practice. Most
recently, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and the state of
Washington in the United States decided to either establish a
moratorium or to suspend executions.

While welcoming these developments, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
deplored the fact that many States still execute people with little
regard to due process. During a panel held yesterday in New York, he
also voiced deep concern that some States with long-standing de facto
moratoriums have suddenly resumed executions, or are considering
reintroduction of the death penalty in their legislation.

"The right to life is the most fundamental of all human rights. The
taking of life is too irreversible for one human being to inflict it
on another," he told the event, calling for greater efforts to put a
final stop to this "cruel and inhumane practice" once and for all.

In the case of Belarus, Mr. Haraszti noted that the establishment in
December 2012 of a parliamentary working group on the death penalty
was a "promising development," and called on legislators to begin
effective work towards reform.

In an October 2013 statement, he had urged the Government to start an
immediate moratorium on executions before the relevant legislation and
court system could be reformed and capital punishment removed from the
country's Criminal Code. He had also voiced disappointment that
Belarusian courts continued to hand down death sentences.

Independent experts or special rapporteurs are appointed by the
Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a
country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are
honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their
work.Apr 25 2014 12:00PM
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