Andrea Rigoni, a PACE Special Rapporteur on Belarus, proposed to lift the suspension of Special Guest status for the illegitimately elected Belarusian parliament.
However, Christos Pourgourides, the first vice-chairperson of Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, amended the proposal. Now Special Guest status will be return to Belarus only after the country decrees a moratorium on the execution of the death penalty.
Belarus is the last country of Europe (except Vatican), which is not a member of CE and still practices the execution of the death penalty.
Lluís Maria de Puig i Olive, President of the Assembly, said in an interview to Radio Liberty:
“Here we are not talking about the full abolition, but rather about guarantees that these executions will not happen anymore. The Belarusian authorities will demonstrate their readiness to continue the dialogue if they decide to follow through with this decision.”
According to Valiantsin Stefanovich of Human Rights Centre Viasna, human rights defenders support the proposed death penalty suspension: “We think that a moratorium on the execution of the death penalty would be a necessary step for the Belarusian parliament to restore its [Special Guest] status.”
The Belarusian side is not against fulfilling the demand. Mikalai Samaseika, the chairperson of Committee on Legislation and Judicial Matters of the Belarusian Parliament, said that Belarus is absolutely ready to announce a moratorium on the execution of the death penalty this autumn.
The PACE resolution includes one more condition on returning Special Guest status to the Belarusian parliament. Opposition representatives will have to be a part of the Belarusian delegation.
President of the Assembly, according to Radio Liberty, commented:
“We especially stressed the importance of the non-parliamentary opposition. The opposition does not exist in the parliament of your country. But we have a lot of information about the people in Belarus who could represent the opposition in PACE. And it makes no difference who would be doing it [representing the opposition]. It is important for us to hear as many different opinions on the situation in Belarus as possible,” – said Mr Puig.
The final decision on lifting the suspension of Special Guest status for the Parliament of Belarus will be adopted on 7 September by the PACE Bureau. The Belarusian authorities performance on the demands will be taken into account.
In April 2004 PACE adopted two resolutions on Belarus: on disappearances of political opposition activists and on violations of freedom of press. The ministers committee of the Council of Europe demanded that the Belarusian authorities would conduct an independent investigation in the disappeared politicians’ case. From that time on any cooperation between Belarus and Council of Europe was halted.
