MORATORIUM ON CAPITAL EXECUTIONS ON THE PART OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL AND THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS

The Parliament...

CONSIDERING

- that in some countries and situations, the death penalty is inflicted without any juridical and procedural guarantees, especially in the event of coups d'état or civil wars;

- that in such situations, the application of the death penalty is the swift and most probable outcome of trials, in that it is an exemplary and immediate punishment, and that it often turns into fully-fledged extermination since death sentences are carried out on individuals guilty of belonging to the same group, party, or faction;

- that many countries, including some which have democratic constitutions, apply the death penalty in circumstances excluded by the international conventions on human rights (minors and/or the mentally handicapped);

- that an international campaign entitled "Hands Off Cain" is currently being conducted by citizens and parliamentarians for the abolition of the death penalty by the year 2000, supported by Nobel Prize winners, scientists, men of letters, many cities, provinces and regions in Italy, and representatives of all the religions and parliaments of many countries;

- that after the initiative sponsored last year which ended with the decision by the General Assembly of the United Nations to reject an Italian resolution for a moratorium on capital executions (36 votes for, 44 against, and 74 abstentions), this year preparations are underway for initiatives in a larger number of parliaments and for much wider international mobilization with respect to a new deadline for the same objectives in the United Nations;

BINDS THE GOVERNMENT

- to adopt the European Parliament Resolution of 12 March 1992, where it states that no country, and in particular no democratic country, can dispose of the life of its own citizens by providing for the death penalty for specific crimes, even the most serious crimes;

- to pursue the international contentious procedure laid down in article 41 of the International Treaty on Human and Political Rights towards contracting states which apply the death penalty in breach of the restrictions laid down by article 6 of the Treaty (extreme gravity of the crime committed, inapplicability in the case of minors under the age of eighteen, the mentally handicapped and pregnant women);

- to formulate objections to the reservations which states, on ratification of the International Treaty on Human and Political Rights, declare with respect to the restrictions on the use of the death penalty laid down by the Treaty itself;

- to support, during the 50th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the proposal for a conference to establish the Permanent International Court on crimes against humanity, the statute of which, approved by the International Law Commission, excludes recourse to the death penalty;

- to strive to ensure that the Security Council introduces the moratorium on executions to be applied to all situations created by "coups d'état" or civil wars - which constitute a threat to international peace and security - and, in the event of violations, to apply all the sanctions laid down by the Charter of the United Nations;

- to make a formal request, by 20 August, that the question of the death penalty be put on the agenda of the next General Assembly of the United Nations, which meets in New York from September to December 1995, striving to convince other countries to put this request forward at the same time;

- to support, during the next General Assembly, the proposal for a universal moratorium on capital executions as a necessary and immediate step in order to ensure the affirmation throughout the world, by the year 2000, of the right of every human being not to be killed by virtue of a sentence or a juridical measure.