The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2021 Belarus continues to argue that the use of the death penalty is not forbidden by any international human rights instrument to which Belarus is a party, that it is popular among the population, and that its use is on a temporary basis, until its abolition.140 The UN Human Rights Committee has determined in its Concluding Observations on the implementation of the ICCPR in Belarus in 2018 that the country’s practice of secrecy surrounding executions, both towards the inmates and their families, constitutes a violation of Article 7 of the ICCPR.141 During the reporting period, a constitutional challenge was brought in August 2020 by human rights activist Ales Dergachev, who argued that article 175 of the Criminal Procedure Code does not take into account Article 61 of the Constitution – whereby everyone has the right to apply to international organizations in order to protect their rights if all domestic remedies have been exhausted. However, the Constitutional Court held that such constitutional provision can only be applied if the legislature amends article 175 of the Criminal Procedure Code.142 Various organizations reiterated their concerns about the application of the death penalty in Belarus during the reporting period. On World Day against the Death Penalty 2020, the EU and the Council of Europe urged Belarus to abolish the death penalty and “join the majority of countries which have abandoned this cruel and inhuman practice.”143 Following the same line, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus reiterated that, “Belarus must promptly implement a moratorium on executions as a first step towards full abolition of the death penalty.”144 She welcomed the participation of the government in a dialogue on the abolition of the death penalty with international counterparts, and the preliminary efforts to launch a debate on the issue at the national level.145 Following the Universal Periodic Review of Belarus in November 2020, Belarus supported the recommendations made to consider ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to ICCPR and those recommendations requesting 140 Viasna, Death penalty in Belarus in the context of global justice. Is abolition possible?, 31 July 2021; ODIHR, The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2020, op. cit., note 5, p. 43; see also footnote no. 144. 141 Human Rights Committee, “Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Belarus”, UN Doc CCPR/C/BLR/CO/5, 22 November 2018, para. 27 (b). 142 Viasna, The human rights activist drew the attention of the Constitutional Court to the legal conflict regarding the death penalty, 7 September 2020. 143 EEAS, Defying Death Penalty is defending Human Rights, 10 October 2020. 144 Situation of human rights in Belarus, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, A/HRC/44/55, 8 April 2020, para. 6. 145 Ibid., pp. 5 and 18. 38