A/HRC/29/43 11. The absence of a national human rights institution is one of the reasons why the institutional setting for the promotion and protection of human rights in the country remains deficient. In 2010, the Government accepted a recommendation made during its universal periodic review on considering the establishment of a national human rights institution in accordance with the Paris Principles. The Special Rapporteur notes that, although according to a report issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (http://mfa.gov.by/upload/UPR_Belarus_National_Report.pdf), discussions thereon are ongoing, after four years Belarus has still not established such an institution. 12. The Special Rapporteur found no information on progress made by the parliamentary working group on the death penalty established in 2010. In the meantime, capital punishment continues to be used in Belarus with no guarantee of due process. In 2014, three persons were executed, and a new death sentence was pronounced on 18 March 2015.1 13. The unwillingness of the Government to address chronic human rights concerns and the absolute impunity for human rights violations contribute to their perpetuation. The Special Rapporteur has underlined the systemic and systematic nature of human rights violations in Belarus in his previous reports. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had earlier concluded that deficiencies pertaining to human rights in Belarus were of “a systemic nature” (A/HRC/20/8, para. 74). The regrettable lack of governmental cooperation on the mandate underlines the need to report on and monitor the situation of human rights in Belarus. 14. It is therefore critical that the Human Rights Council maintain its scrutiny of the serious human rights situation in Belarus, even more so in the light of the presidential elections to be held at the end of 2015. 15. With the incumbent president having been in office for nearly 20 years and the absence of an opposition in Parliament, there has been a pattern of mass-scale pressure on and harassment against civil society actors in Belarus amounting to recurring violence, specifically during or in the immediate aftermath of presidential and parliamentary elections and the announcement of their preordained outcomes. The most recent example was the presidential election held on 19 December 2010, when more than 600 people were detained and dozens of civil society activists, journalists, politicians and their supporters were arrested. Several observers, researchers and human rights experts are concerned about similar severe human rights violations in the electoral process if circumstances of free and fair elections are not guaranteed. Indeed, the Special Rapporteur highlights the direct correlation between a freely functioning civil society and the enjoyment of the right to genuine periodic elections guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors, in accordance with article 25 (b) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 16. It is also with the presidential elections in mind that the Special Rapporteur addresses recommendations to the Government in order to protect human rights in the context of the elections. He reiterates his readiness to cooperate with the authorities. B. Methodology 17. Independence, impartiality and objectivity, and cooperation with all stakeholders are the guiding principles of the work conducted by the Special Rapporteur. 1 4 European Union delegation to the United Nations, “Statement by the Spokesperson on a death sentence in Belarus”, 19 March 2015.