PRESS RELEASE

Emma Bonino, Secretary of the Transnational radical party as well as Deputy Speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, met the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the President of the General Assembly, Stoyan Ganeev and many other United Nations officials during the course of her week's visit to New York. The global issues discussed included the Permanent Tribunal on War Crimes, the Ad-hoc Tribunal on War Crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, reform of the United Nations, management of water resources, specifically regarding the Danube, a transbalkan communications network and the campaigh to affirm the right not to be killed by the rule of law.

Recently 37 thousands Italians joined the Radical Party, paying an average of USD 200 each in individual membership fees, to support the existence and the project of the new transnational party. This occurred in a country which is experiencing a serious moral, civil and institutional crisis, where the political system is on the point of collapse and where there is a widespread rejection of politcs and political leaders. The Party's objective is twofold: to create transnational laws, having adequate authority and power, including that of imposing sanctions to ensure the concrete application of juridical and transnational instruments, signed by countries and often not complied with; and to create common institutions to confront the most urgent global problems we face today, particularly in the fields of environment, development and human rights.

More than 500 parliamentarians from 40 countries, resenting together over 70 national parties, support these objectives through their membership in the Transnational party, whose next Governing Assembly meeting will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria from 24 to 27 June 1993.

Emma Bonino expressed to the Secretary-General her full and active satisfaction at the rapid manner in which the decision was taken to institute the Ad-hoc Tribunal as well as for the contents of that report coincide with the proposals of the Italian Government as well as with the proposal put forward by the Transnational Radical Party. Particular reference was made to the affirmation that no one may be sentenced to, nor executed by, capital punishment in absentia. In this context, Emma Bonino noted that the adjournment of the debate in the Security Council yesterday should not result in a blockage on this issue. The Transnational Radical Party will continue in any case to exercise pressure concerning the timing and modalities of action. In this regard it is in the process of collecting signatures on two subjects (abolition of the death penalty globally and the establishment of an International Tribunal) which will be delivered to the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Human Rights which w

ill take place in Vienna from 14 to 24 June.

With respect to the reform of the United Nations, the Transnational Radical Party put forward two proposals: the establishment of a permanent parliamentary assembly, in order to provide more direct expression of public opinion within United Nations decision-making--a proposal in which both Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and General Assembly President Ganev expressed active interest--and a multilateral civil service as an alternative to national civil service, in an effort to apply Article 43 of the UN Charter, particularly regarding the strengthening of "preventive diplomacy". Concerning the Transnational Radical Party's General Assembly in Sofia, given the transnational themes to be covered, the Secretary-General expressed his intention to send a message to the Assembly through a personal envoy.

Regarding the environment, Emma Bonino focussed attention on the question of water management. In this context, discussion revolved around the possibility of launching a campaign in favour of the Danube with the aim of subjecting it to a high authority by applying the Belgrade Convention.

With officials of the Department of Political Affairs, Emma Bonino concentrated primarily on the situation in the former Yugoslavia, in particular that of Kossovo, which she had recently visited. Keeping in mind the potentially explosive situation in Kossovo she underlined the absolute necessity of maintaining sharp and active attention on that area and of developing the appropriate instruments with which to prevent the extension of the conflict.

Friday 21st May, 1993