Rome - Chisinau, July 25, 1994

Dear Petru Lucinschi,

We appeal to you on behalf of "Hands Off Cain" the worldwide campaign of parliamentarians and citizens for the abolishing death penalty in the world by 2000, at the moment when the Constitution of the country is debated in the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. At the draft constitution which was now carried out for the second readings, the Article 24 is present, which fixes the preservation in the Republic of Moldova death penalty as punishment measure for ordinary crimes.

We are convinced - and this conviction was reflected in the Final Motion approved by the Constitutional Congress of the Hands Off Cain Campaign which was held in Brussels on December 9 and 10 last year - that right of every human being not to be killed according the trial sentence or any other judicial measure, must be affirmed as a fundamental inviolable right in every legislative system, especially in the countries those which revise now their constitutions. We also are convinced, that including of such an article, not only not abolishing death penalty, but even declaring its preservation, into the Constitution of a new democratic state contradicts to the Moldavian striving to the European integration, where no democratic state provides death penalty.

It is necessary to mention in this context the motion of European Parliament from March 12, 1992, which states, "that no state, and with greater reason, no democratic state, may dispose of the lives of its citizens ... by providing for the death penalty in its ordinances as a consequence of crimes however serious", and the fact that in the Statute of the Ad Hoc Tribunal on crimes committed in ex-Yugoslavia the world community unanimously excluded the possibility of application death penalty in any circumstance.

What is more, "Hands off Cain" the International Campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in the world by 2000, has presented in different parliaments a motion for the moratorium on the death penalty. The Italian Parliament has approved (19th July) this motion and the Italian government has now engaged itself to ask the U.N. Security Council to impose a moratorium on death penalty in case of coup d'etat or civil war; to ask U.N. General Assembly to put on its agenda a Resolution on the universal moratorium on executions; to promote the creation by the General Assembly of the International Permanent Court for crimes against humanity .

Also in Belgium, Spain and Rumania, governments have agreed to promote this resolution.

If the United Nations will adopt this resolution it will be a great step towards the abolition of the death penalty. This will means that as the torture and the slavery have been abolished, also the death penalty will not be provided for in any penal code.

Approving of a constitution which gives to the State possibility to dispose lifes of its citizens, will make an extremely negative influence on the image of an democratic state of law, which Moldova strives to became.

Starting from all the mentioned above, we urge you during the second reading debates to do all what is possible in order to exclude the Article 24 from the draft constitution.

Members of the Management Council. Signatures:

- Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Laureate 1988 (USA)

- Adem Demaqi, Sakharov Prize (Kosovo)

- Abdus Salam, Nobel Physics Laureate, President of the International Center for Theoretical Physics (Pakistan)

- Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate 1976 (Northern Ireland)

- Emma Bonino, Secretary of the transnational Radical Party (Italy)

- Adelaide Aglietta, President of the Green Group, Speaker on the Death Penalty at the European Parliament (Italy)

- Jokubas Minkevicius, Member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences

- François Fejtö, historian (France)

- William Schabas, Professor of Law, University of Quebec, president of Hands off Cain (Canada)

- Sergio D'Elia, Secretary of Hands off Cain (Italy)

- Olivia Ratti, Treasurer of Hands off Cain (Belgium)

- Gaqo Apostoli, MP (Albania)

- Igor Bezrukov, President of the Legal Experts Council of the President of the Russian Federation

- Alberto Castiel, President of the Brazilian Institute for Human Rights

- Paolo Cesari, journalist (Italy)

- Ashanti Chimurenga, Former Director of Amnesty International USA, Program to Abolish the Death Penalty

- Mariateresa Di Lascia, Coordinator (Italy)

- Olivier Dupuis, President of the General Council of transnational Radical Party (Belgium)

- Peter Hodgkinson, Director of the Center for Capital Punishment Studies, University of Westminster (England)

- Samir Labidi, jurist (Tunisia)

- Liza Largoza-Maza, Secretary General of GABRIELA (A national women's coalition of organizations) (Philippines)

- Markijan Chuchuk, Former MP (Ukraine)

- Petru Munteanu, Former MP (Moldavia)

- Ibrahim N'Douré, President of the UDD's Parliamentary Group (Mali)

- Cyril Pillay, MP (South Africa)

- Anatolij Pristavkin, President of the Committee for Mercy of the President of Russian Federation

- Cesare Salvi, senator, jurist (Italy)

- Emilio Vesce, regional councillor (Italy)

- Elhadji Allélé Habibou, MP, President of the African Deputies League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty by 2000 (Niger)

- Hassib Ben Ammar, Former MP, President of the Arabian Institute for Human Rights (Tunisia)

- Giandonato Caggiano, Professor, Director of the Italian Institute for the International Organization (Italy)

- Alma Agata Cappiello, Former MP (Italy)

- Liliana Cavani, Film Director (Italy)

- Khemaïs Chemari, MP, President of the Mediterranean Watch on Human Rights (Tunisia)

- Tiziana Maiolo, MP (Italy)

- Sonia Mladenova, MP (Bulgaria)

- Marco Pannella, EuroMP, President of the transnational Radical Party (Italy)

- Antonio-Maria Pereira, MP, President of the Foreign Affairs Committee (Portugal)

- Zvonimir Separovic, President of the World Society of Victimology (Croatia)

- Marco Taradash, MP (Italy)