BNYC “RADA” at the World Congress Against the Death Penalty
“About half of those executed in Belarus are young people aged 18 to 31”.
From June 30 to July 2, President of France Emmanuel Macron as well as more than a thousand politicians, activists, and top world organisations working with the topic of death penalty abolition gathered in Paris for the Ninth World Congress against the Death Penalty. At the Belarusian side event on July 2, BNYC “RADA” presented a unique map of places associated with death sentences in Minsk, capital of Belarus.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, noted in his speech that “a whole young generation has grown up in Europe that does not know the death penalty.” Meanwhile, Belarus is the last European country that still uses the death penalty, including on young people. For this reason, in 2020 “RADA” joined the coalition of human rights defenders against the death penalty in Belarus.
About the map
During the side event dedicated to the situation with the death penalty in Belarus and the human rights activities of youth and civil society for its abolition, international secretary of “RADA”, Yuliya Ralko had the chance to present, for the first time, a project developed by the BNYC “RADA” together with the Council of Europe following our Hackathon of ideas on advocating for the issue of the death penalty in Belarus.
“Most discussions at the World Congress against the Death Penalty focus on legislation, court decisions or statistics. We wanted to approach this topic a little differently. Our project starts with a map. It tells the story of the death penalty through places in Minsk that are connected to its history and encourages people to look at the city from a different perspective.
While working on the project, one fact stood out to us. Since 1994, more than 300 people have been sentenced to death in Belarus, and around half of them were between 18 and 31 years old. As a youth organisation, “RADA” couldn’t ignore that. It made us think about what role a youth council could play in this conversation and how we could continue reaching young people in Belarus while working from exile to address this topic.
One question I was asked after the presentation stayed with me: “Do you still have hope?”
I realised I didn’t need to think about the answer. If we are still creating new projects, finding partners and reaching people despite everything, then yes, I think there is plenty of reason to hope. For me, hope isn’t something abstract. It’s simply continuing the work”.
Other participants of the side-event included Andrei Paluda, coordinator of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders Against the Death Penalty”, representative of Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya Alexander Shlyk, and Maksim Znak, lawyer, civil activist, and former political prisoner, who presented the keynote address.
The official presentation of the map will take place soon. Stay tuned for “RADA”’s news.
