The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2019 he criticized the Governor of California’s decision to impose a moratorium on executions.43 There is evidence that public support for the death penalty in the United States has increased somewhat.44 Officials in Belarus have cited public opinion as a reason to defer the abolition of the death penalty.45 However, public debate appears to be limited in Belarus, probably due to the distinct lack of information available regarding the application of the death penalty, “as it is virtually absent in the state print and electronic media.”46 As the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus highlighted, the official line delivered on 28 February 2019 by the Chairperson of the Standing Commission of the House of Representatives on Human Rights, National Relations and Mass Media, Andrei Naumovich, was that Belarus will not abolish the death penalty until a majority of the population supports this move.47 This is despite no apparent government initiatives to measure public opinion since a referendum in 1996.48 Both international experts and local human rights activists maintain that it is the government who should lead the debate and work on changing perceptions to favour the abolition of the death penalty.49 After citing troubling suggestions by senior politicians in some participating States to put the death penalty back on the agenda or expand its use, the ODIHR Director stated in October 2018: “All countries in the OSCE have committed to keeping the complete abolition of the death penalty under consideration, and political leaders 43  “NYC terrorist was happy as he asked to hang ISIS flag in his hospital room. He killed 8 people, badly injured 12. SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!”, 2 November 2017, <https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/925931294705545216>; “Defying voters, the Governor of California will halt all death penalty executions of 737 stone cold killers. Friends and families of the always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled, and neither am I!”, 13 March 2019, <https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1105795445794717697?lang=en>. 44  “Public support for the death penalty ticks up”, Pew Research Center, 11 June 2018, <https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/06/11/us-support-for-death-penalty-ticks-up-2018/>. 45  “Власти Беларуси не планируют отменять смертную казнь”, [Belarussian authorities are not planning to abolish the death penalty], 28 February 2019, <https://naviny.by/new/20190228/1551381481-vlasti-belarusi-ne-planiruyut-otmenyat-smertnuyu-kazn>. 46  Human Rights Center “Viasna”, “Human Rights Situation in Belarus: 2018 Analytical review”, p. 8, <http:// spring96.org/files/misc/review_2018_en.pdf>; and, Penal Reform International (PRI), “Crime and punishment: Public perception, judgment and opinion”, 2013, p. 40, <https://cdn.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Belarus-public-opinion-survey-English-for-publication1.pdf>. 47  Anaïs Marin, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus,” U.N. Doc. A/ HRC/41/52, 8 May 2019, para. 23. 48  “Во все разговоры – референдума в ближайшее время не будет”, [Despite all talks, there will be no referendum anytime soon], 28 April 2018, <https://ont.by/news/lidiya-ermoshina-prezident-vnyos-polnyyu-yasnostvo-vse-razgovori-referendy>. 49  Anaïs Marin, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, op. cit., note 47, para. 23; and: “Time to act towards true abolition of the death penalty, say HRDs”, Viasna, 19 April 2018, <http://spring96.org/en/news/89697>. 17