Pushing for death penalty elimination in Belarus Amnesty International penned a letter this week to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Czech republic as the current rotating Presidency of the European Council calling for pressure on Belarus re corporal punishment. The letter addressed to Karel Schwarzenberg sets out the international aid organisations unease at where the EU relationship with the Belarusian state is going, especially when the country seems to be so blatantly disregarding the United Nations Charter of Human Rights as a minimum standard. Over the past five months, the EU has embarked on a new period of engagement with Belarus, including the suspension of travel restrictions, increased bilateral political dialogue and technical cooperation with the Belarusian authorities, and the prospect of the countrys inclusion in the new Eastern Partnership. Furthermore, the General Affairs and External Relations Council of March 16, 2009 specifically recommended the launch of a human rights dialogue with Belarus in the near future, says Amnesty International in the letter from their EU office in Brussels. However, Belarus is the only country in Europe and the former Soviet Union that still carries out executions. All information on the death penalty in Belarus is kept secret, and there are no available statistics on the number of executions. Amnesty International estimates that as many as 400 people may have been executed since Belarus gained its independence in 1991. At least four people were executed and one more sentenced to death in 2008. Prisoners on death row are told they will be executed only moments before the sentence is carried out proclaimed AI. They are shot in the back of the head, and the body is not handed over to the family, who are informed only after the event. The place of burial is kept secret, causing further distress to relatives. Further information on the continued use of the death penalty in Belarus can be found in the report, Ending executions in Europe: towards abolition of the death penalty in Belarus (EUR 49/001/2009), published on March 24, 2009.