Amnesty International is launching a campaign to have the death penalty in Belarus abolished

Amnesty International is launching a campaign to have the death penalty in Belarus abolished, Heather McGill, a representative of the global human rights watchdog, said. Ms. McGill stayed in Belarus between October 22 and 28 to study the human rights situation and the situation regarding capital punishment. "We are now launching a project that will last throughout 2009. This is a campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in your country," she said. "It’s very important for us that events aimed at changing public sentiments are held inside the country. It is important that Amnesty International writes a report and sends it out to different international organisations. But we also need members of our organisation, who live here and know the situation from inside, to work in Belarus so that they could influence, for instance, their government, lobby these projects and thus have an opportunity to change laws," Ms. McGill said. The Amnesty International representative said that Belarus "is ready to abolish the death penalty." "There has been a hearing on the matter in the parliament, the Supreme Court chairman has said that this is already possible," she noted. "This is a topic where the government must manage and direct public opinion. People often defend capital punishment because they have the wrong belief that this is the simplest way to fight crime. But authorities should be smarter and understand that death penalty in a country leads to strife between people because it is legalised revenge."