PACE URGES BELARUS TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY

April 14, 2011: the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called on Belarus, Japan and the United States to abolish the death penalty.
"The European experience has shown conclusively that the death penalty is not needed to check violent crime, and that political leaders who led the way towards abolition did not suffer any backlash from public opinion," the Assembly says in a resolution adopted at its spring session in Strasbourg.
The Assembly urges the United States of America and Japan, as observer states, and Belarus, which aspires to membership of the Council of Europe, to join the growing consensus among democratic countries that protect human rights and human dignity by abolishing the death penalty.
The Assembly "strongly condemns continued executions since 2008, which have caused much damage to the credibility of Belarus’ bid to move closer to the family of democratic European states which protect human rights and human dignity.
"Competent authorities should declare a moratorium on executions without further delay and take the necessary steps to abolish the death penalty in law, the resolution says. (Sources: BelaPAN, 15/04/2011)