End the death penalty in Belarus
Amnesty International Ireland calls on the Belarusian authorities to establish an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty as a first step towards the abolition of the death penalty in Belarus and towards making Europe and the former Soviet Union a death penalty-free zone.
In 2009 for the first time no executions were recorded in Europe and the former Soviet Union. But in March 2010 Belarus, which has retained the death penalty, carried out two executions. There are currently three men facing the death penalty in Belarus, with two of these at risk of imminent execution.
In Belarus, executions are carried out by a shot to the back of the head and sometimes more than one bullet is needed. Prisoners on death row are told that they will be executed only moments before the sentence is carried out. The body is not handed over to the family, who are often informed only afterwards, and the place of burial is kept secret, causing further distress to relatives.
Amnesty International unconditionally opposes the death penalty. It is the ultimate denial of human rights, a premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state. It violates the right to life as proclaimed in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is also the ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, being the most extreme assault on the body of a person, preceded by the most extreme psychological suffering.
Executions in Belarus
Last March, when Andrei Zhuk’s mother brought one of her usual food parcels to the prison in Minsk, she was turned away. Her son ‘had been moved’, officials told her. She should not come looking for him anymore, they said, but should instead wait to hear from the court.
Three days later, she was informed by prison staff that her son and another man, Vasily Yuzepchuk, cell mates on death row, had been shot. Officials refused to return Andrei’s body or belongings, or even to say where he had been buried. She was shocked. Her husband suffered a heart attack upon hearing the news.
The executions were the first in Belarus – the last executioner in Europe and the former Soviet Union – in more than a year. They stood in stark, disturbing contrast to the rising tide of world opinion that has seen a growing list of countries abolishing the death penalty.
But while an overwhelming majority of countries around the world have stopped executing some, like Belarus, defiantly resist. They often claim religious, cultural or political principles as justifications. But whatever their reasoning, they account for thousands of deaths each year involving this most cruel and inhumane punishment.
Global Campaign
In 1977, when Amnesty International began its global campaign against the death penalty, it had been abolished by only 16 countries. Now, as the our annual report, Death Sentences and Executions 2010, shows, nearly a hundred countries have stopped using it for all crimes, with 139 ending it in law or practice. And there are other encouraging milestones.
Mongolia implemented a moratorium on executions and Gabon abolished the death penalty in the past year. Even in countries where support for the death penalty remains strong, such as China, Kenya, Guyana and Bangladesh, positive steps are being made towards bringing its use in line with human rights standards. More states than ever before voted at the UN last year in favour of a worldwide moratorium on executions. And in 2011, in the United States, Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty.
But the state-sanctioned killings continue. There were at least 527 executions in 22 countries in 2010, not including the thousands thought to have been executed in China. And more than 2,000 new death sentences are known to have been handed down, bringing the world’s death row population to nearly 18,000.
In 2010, prisoners were beheaded, electrocuted, hanged, given lethal injections, shot in the back of the head or executed by firing squad. Sometimes the sentences were carried out in public.
Countries that insist on using the death penalty claim that they use it only in accordance with international law. But their actions blatantly contradict these claims.
Troublesome people
In reality, many of these countries use the death penalty as a convenient way of getting rid of troublesome people and showing the authorities are tough on crime. It is often imposed after unfair trials and based on confessions extracted through torture. It is used against political opponents, poor people, minorities and members of racial, ethnic and religious communities. It is sometimes even used against people who allegedly committed crimes when they were under 18 or who have significant mental health problems.
Worryingly, death sentences are handed down for acts such as fraud, sorcery, drug-related offences or sexual relations between consenting adults, which fall far short of the legal threshold of ‘most serious’ crimes.
In just the last year, death sentences were imposed for drug-related offences in China, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Yemen. The Ugandan parliament saw the introduction of a bill calling for the death penalty for ‘aggravated’ homosexuality. And in Pakistan, Aasia Bibi, a Christian mother of five, faced a possible death sentence following charges of blasphemy.
Abolition
The global trend towards abolition is clear. But the fight is far from finished. As events in the past year have shown, the gains that have been achieved over the past three decades of campaigning cannot be guaranteed. Even when almost the whole world says ‘enough is enough’, some countries choose not to hear.
And in Belarus, three more death sentences have been handed down.
Sign our petition to end the death penalty in Belarus.
