Subject: from TRANSNATIONAL - Satyagraha - No 9
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THE UN DISCUSSION ABOUT THE MORATORIUM OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND THE
ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY BY THE YEAR 2000
Some 857 members of National parliaments and 210 mayors have joined the
appeal by the Radical Party and the "Hands Off Cain" association on these
two issues. Thanks to contributions by many people, mostly Italians, we
were able to afford advertising on US newspapers (particularly the New York
Times), targeting UN delegates in particular about the worldwide attention
on their actions.
The importance of such a campaign is that for the first time simple
citizens could establish a dialogue with the UN: its session turned into a
sort of public Parliament, instead of just an International institution.
"A revolutionary fact for UN," General Secretary Boutros Ghali told a
Radical Party delegation in Rome last November.
For a handful of votes, the UN General Assembly did not pass the Italian
resolution asking for the universal suspension of capital executions. It
was a hard battle. There has never been so many delegates and speeches
delivered at a UN Commission. Many delegates made inquiries to their
government before voting. Some countries, that have already abolished the
death penalty, joined the opposite front - with a decisive result for the
final outcome.
The amendment proposed by Singapore (passed by a few votes) read: "The
National State is an inviolable and opaque sphere: inside of it everything
is allowed": an unacceptable principle and a dangerous example. Now
completely modified, the Italian resolution was rejected even by its
proponents. To be honest, the Singapore move was simply an excuse for much
stronger nationalism. In fact, the ones defeated were not those claiming
the abolition of the death penalty but the Internationalists and the UN,
those supporting the principle that every State exists because of the
International respect for some basic rights of every individual.
However, pushing for the first time the UN into the discussion about such
issues as the moratorium of executions, the principle of not letting any
State disposing of its citizens' life, the year 2000 as a deadline for a
judicial abolition of the death penalty throughout the world proved to be a
revolutionary happening. Also revolutionary was the fact that, for the
first time, representatives and citizens from all over the world spoke out
their positions during a UN session. Now we can start anew on more solid
basis; we have verified and experimented a possible method.
The mid-term political and legal goal of our abolitionist strategy remains
the moratorium of capital executions. 1995 offers three important occasions
toward the realization of this goal: the UN World Congress on Crimes and
Criminals Treatment (May 1995); the UN General Assembly (September-December
1995); the UN Security Council, which is entitled to take decisions about
the moratorium of executions in case of state coups, civil wars or similar
situations.
Also, we decided to hold three large world conferences during 1995 in
crucial places for the campaign of the abolition of the death penalty by
the year 2000: in New York, with the UN and the American abolitionists to
counter-act the defeat of Governor Cuomo; in Moscow, with jurists and
members of Parliament working together to set new constitutions; in Tunis,
for an open dialogue with the Islamic countries.
But first of all we must keep alive that political organization which made
possible this initiative and that is initiating a new attempt for tomorrow.
