Prospects for Abolition of the Death Penalty in the Republic of Belarus  Grigory A. Vasilevich and Elissa A. Sarkisova Abolition of the death penalty is a problem that different countries resolve in different ways. Each country approaches the abolition of this form of punishment in its own way, and working out the solution often takes a very long time. This process can also be reversed: A country may abolish the death penalty and then reinstate it. This was the case, for example, in the United States, where the death penalty was declared unconstitutional in 1972 but was afterwards reintroduced in 38 states. The death penalty was abolished, reinstated, and then abolished again in Italy. It was abolished and then reintroduced four times in Russia and then the Soviet Union. There have recently been popular outbursts demanding the restoration of the death penalty in a number of countries that abolished it years ago. This frequently happens in the wake of a terrorist attack. Today, however, the progress made by humanity in resolving this issue is very clear. The leaders in this have been the European states, the vast majority of which have not applied the death penalty for decades. The groundwork for this process was laid with the adoption, on 28 April 1983, of Protocol No. 6 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms concerning the abolition of the death penalty. But a number of countries had expressed their opposition to the death penalty for many years before the adoption of the Protocol and even the Convention, which was adopted on 4 November 1950, and had either banned it from being used in judicial practice or not envisioned it at all in their legislation. An important step in the process of abolishing the death penalty was the signing by 36 states, on 3 May 2002, of Protocol No. 13 to the Convention, which forbids the application of this form of punishment under any circumstances, including in time of    Translated from the Russian by Peter Morley. Grigory A. Vasilevich is chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus. Elissa A. Sarkisova is a judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus.