Information about this was received in response to a series of appeals by “Training course on human rights” graduate, human rights defender Kseniya Dubitskaya.The response by the Deputy Prosecutor General M. Kuklis says that “taking into account proposals from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the addition of the Criminal Code definition of “torture”, the working group of the Prosecutor General had decided to implement the proposals in the draft Law “.
“Now, the draft law is under consideration with concerned government authorities. As a result of the consideration a decision will be made on the further adjustment of the norm, taking into account comments and suggestions,” – said in response.
Back in June 2011, a number of appeals with proposal to include in the Criminal Code definition of “torture” which is based on Article 1 of the “Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment”, were sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus. These appeals were forwarded to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in July 2011 Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs A. Kurylets reported that the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Belarus will be responsible for preparation of the bill on amendments to the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code. In addition, the Ministry of Internal Affairs sent a proposal to introduce definition of “torture” in the Criminal Code to the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus .
Human rights defender comments : “As a result of numerous requests a definition of “torture” has been introduced to the draft law “On Making Amendments and Addenda to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.”The response from the Prosecutor General’s Office gives us reason to believe that after consultation with the concerned government agencies, the definition of “torture” will be included in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, together with an appropriate punishment for this crime.Currently, the position of Internal Ministry Prosecutor General’s Office on this issue is clear. Now it’s the legislators: the timing of the bill introduction to the House of Representatives of the Republic of Belarus is April 2012. “
UN Committee Against Torture discussed the issue as well
The same question of the definition of “torture”, was considered by the UN Committee against Torture on November 11 during a discussion of the periodic report of Belarus on the implementation of the UN convention against torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment.The authors drew attention to the fact that the Constitution guarantees the inadmissibility of torture and other cruel treatment or punishment, but at the same time, no legislative act of the Republic of Belarus contains a definition of “torture” as it is enshrined in Article 1 of the Convention. Belarusian legislation does not specify the kinds of inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, which form the basis for the names of the Convention. With regard to evidence obtained through torture, the Committee demands to ensure that the judges would ask all those detained about whether they were subjected to torture or to cruel treatment in prison.Belarus should also provide information about the officials, who were convicted and punished for wresting an admission of guilt from the prisoners using torture.
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