The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2019 justice.”211 The UN Human Rights Committee has also commented on the use of the death penalty in Belarus without guarantee of due process.212 This resolution was adopted by a vote of 19 to 6, with 21 abstentions.213 Co-operation with international bodies There are also ongoing concerns about Belarus’ interactions with international bodies. In October 2018, the EU noted its concern about secrecy surrounding the death penalty in Belarus and the fact that its ongoing application of capital punishment “runs counter to Belarus’ stated willingness to engage with the international community.”214 Despite various visits and events that Belarus took part in or hosted (often in co-operation with the Council of Europe), the current UN Special Rapporteur, who officially assumed her functions on 1 November 2018, did not receive an answer after requesting to visit Belarus. She states that this continues “the policy of non-engagement implemented by the Government during the six-year term of her predecessor.”215 Belarus has also not addressed the requests of the UN Human Rights Committee. As the Special Rapporteur emphasized, Aliaksei Mikhalenia, Siamion Berazhny and Ihar Hershankou were all executed in the reporting period, although the UN Human Rights Committee had called for a stay on executions while the individual complaints of each of these death row prisoners were considered.216 As reported by the UN Human Rights Committee in their concluding observations in November 2018, Belarus justifies this non-compliance with interim measures, even in death penalty cases, by arguing that such measures are not binding, but advisory.217 The UN Human Rights Committee states further that Belarus is not “fully co-operate[ing] with the Committee in the framework of individual communications, due to the Committee’s practice of registering cases without requiring that the supervisory review procedure be first exhausted and of accepting cases not 211  Human Rights Council, 38/14. Situation of human rights in Belarus, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/RES/38/14, 16 July 2018, para. 6. 212  Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Belarus, op. cit., note 175, para 27 a. 213  Notably, OSCE participating States Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia abstained. Human Rights Council, 38/14. Situation of human rights in Belarus, op. cit., note 211. 214  “EU statement on European and World Day against the Death Penalty”, OSCE Permanent Council, 11 October 2018, <https://www.osce.org/permanent-council/400133?download=true>. 215  Anaïs Marin, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, op. cit., note 47, para. 11. 216  Ibid., para. 20. 217  Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Belarus, op. cit., note 175, para 7. 42