On the occasion of the Forth All Belarus People’s Congress on 6-7 December 2010 in Minsk, President Alexander Lukashenko announced that the issue of the death penalty in Belarus should be revisited. However, he underlined that public opinion clearly favours capital punishment and that the will of the people should be taken into account.
In a letter to President Lukashenko, the ICDP offers advice and assistance regarding the intention to revisit capital punishment. The ICDP also recalls that in many other countries the abolition of the death penalty has been imposed by great political leaders in spite of the public support regarding the death penalty. The letter also points out that experiences have shown that public opinion has changed in favour of the abolition once it had been abolished.
