A/HRC/RES/32/26 obligations and commitments, and not used to impede or unduly restrict the exercise of any human right, including the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the right to peaceful assembly and the right to freedom of association, including to form and join a trade union, and the freedom of the media; 4. Acknowledges the engagement of Belarus in the twenty-second session of the universal periodic review, in 2015, calls upon Belarus to continue to work on the implementation of accepted review recommendations with the full participation of all of civil society, and takes note of the preparatory work done to date on its national plan of action on human rights; 5. Notes the continued attention paid by the Special Rapporteur to the issue of the death penalty in Belarus, and in particular expresses deep concern at its use without guarantee of due process and at the limited amount of relevant information with regard to its use, including the number of persons sentenced to death or executed and the crimes for which it is applied, taking into account that transparency is a requirement of fair and effective criminal justice, requests him to continue to monitor developments and to make recommendations, and in this regard encourages the parliamentary working group on the death penalty to expedite its work; 6. Urges the Government of Belarus to carry out a comprehensive reform of the justice sector and bar associations in order to guarantee the full independence and impartiality of the judiciary, the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair trial and the right to an effective review of sentences and convictions by a higher tribunal established by law and to freely chosen legal representation throughout all proceedings, and the availability of information on the implementation of all sentences, while encouraging the Government to continue to reform the judiciary; 7. Welcomes the release of political prisoners in August 2015, calls for the reinstatement of the civil and political rights of former political prisoners, in particular in view of the parliamentary election of September 2016, strongly urges the Government of Belarus to address, through comprehensive, transparent and credible investigations, reports of torture and ill-treatment by law-enforcement officials and to prosecute alleged perpetrators and punish those found guilty, and to put an immediate end to the arbitrary arrest, detention and harassment of human rights defenders, political opponents and journalists, to arbitrary travel bans and to other policies aimed at intimidating representatives of the political opposition and the media, and human rights defenders and civil society organizations, including by criminalizing the exercise of the right to freedom of association; 8. Urges Belarus to take all necessary steps ahead of the parliamentary election of September 2016 to reform its electoral legislation, and to follow the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in this regard, while welcoming the growing openness of Belarus to dialogue and cooperation with the Office, takes positive note of the establishment of an inter-agency group on electoral reform by the Government of Belarus, urges Belarus to ensure that the parliamentary election is free, fair, inclusive and peaceful while providing for the equal treatment of all candidates before, during and after the vote, and to issue an invitation to the Office for it to conduct an election observation mission; 9. Strongly encourages the Government of Belarus to establish a national human rights institution in accordance with the principles relating to the status of national 2