The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called on Belarus, Japan and the U.S. to abandon the death penalty. Relevant resolution was adopted by UN during its spring session in Strasbourg on April 14. PACE has again urged the competent authorities to declare a moratorium on executions without further delay and take the necessary steps to abolish the death penalty in law.
PACE 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.»
«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,» noted in PACE.
