No place for dictatorship in Council of Europe

• 18.12.2007, 8:25

“Belarus appealed to join the Council of Europe. But consideration of the appeal was stopped, because Belarus didn’t fulfil democratic standards, standards of human rights and supremacy of law, and we can’t renew the consideration of the Belarus’ appeal today,” Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis said to Radio Svaboda.

According to Terry Davis, this situation has lasted for more than 10 years. “We express regret at this fact, because Belarus is the only country in Europe, which is non-member of the Council of Europe. To join the Council of Europe Belarus should provide freedom of the press, possibility to spread newspapers criticising Alyaksandr Lukashenka. I think the situation with human rights should become better. Abolition of capital punishment would be a positive step, too, because Belarus is the only country in Europe, where death penalty still exists,” Terry Davis said.