Amnesty International to launch reports calling for the abolition of the death penalty

(Minsk) On 24 March 2009, Amnesty International will release its global death penalty statistics, looking at how many people were executed or sentenced to death across the world during 2008.

On the same day, in a separate report,  Ending executions in Europe: Towards abolition of the death penalty in Belarus, the human rights organization will call on the last state in Europe and Central Asia that still  sentences people to death and executes them to follow the global trend and abolish the death penalty.
 
Who:     Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International
                Heather McGill, Belarus expert at Amnesty International
When:   11.00 local time (9am GMT), Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Where:  Hotel “Minsk”, 2nd floor conference room
               11 Nezavisimosti Ave
                Minsk

 
For more information on the reports and requests for interviews with Amnesty International's Belarus and global death penalty experts, please contact Lydia Aroyo, Press Officer for Europe and Central Asia on +44 (0) 7771 796 350 or +375 33 6618843; e-mail address: aroyo@amnesty.org.   
 
END/