NEWSLETTER ON THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE RADICAL PARTY - #5, August 30, 1996

Editor: Sandro Ottoni - Ilica 8 - 10000 Zagreb (CRO) - Tel/fax.+385-1-277.959 - E-mail S.Ottoni@agora.stm.it - WWW-Url: http//:www.agora.stm.it/pr - Telnet: Agora.stm.it

Distribution : Alberto Novi - REM 5.08 - Rue Belliard 89 - 1047 Bruxelles (B) - Tel.+32-2-2304121 - Fax.+32-2-2303670.

Published in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Croatian.

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Dear friend,

in August, several important activities took place at the United Nations in New York and in Geneva for the establishment of an International Criminal Court, and in India for the "freedom of Tibet" campaign. With the information on these latest events, we also want to let you know about our two major campaigns that will take place next month: first of all, we are organizing a fasting dialogue which will start on September 29th and will finish on October 2nd (Mahatma Ghandi's birthday). With this initiative we want to address the Ministry of Affairs of each faster's country, in order to organize an action in favour of the release of Gedhun Choekyi Nyuima, eleventh Panchen Lama and of the Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng. Everybody who wants to participate to the fasting dialogue is welcome.

With the second initiative, we want to propose to all the Parliaments worldwide another appeal for an International Criminal Court. The U.N. Preparatory Committee has proposed dates, deadlines and proposals on the establishment of an International Criminal Court, and now the matter is in hands of the General Assembly, which will start its session in November. Unfortunately, this first important step is tied to a thin string. In fact, several countries are against the ICC and they have already stated their opposition to convene the Diplomatic Conference. Unfortunately they have a great chance of being successful.

The Transnational Radical Party, which for years has been committed to the proposal of a Diplomatic Conference, has made an appeal, asking the International Opinion, NGOs, parties and political movements, human rights organizations, members of local Parliaments and governments worldwide, to support the establishment of an International Criminal Court in 1998.

We have to convince the American Congress and the French and British Parliamentarians, to persuade their own governments to stop every type of delay and obstruction policy. We must encourage governments of countries like India, Mexico, the moderate countries of Arabia and Asia, that did not show hostility to support the ICC, as a vehicle of peace and justice.

We recognize that, in order to start this, we need to launch again our campaign of collecting parliamentarians' signatures, asking the U.N. General-Secretary and the General Assembly to convene, for the next 51st Session in November, a Conference in New York.

Enclosed, you can find the appeal we will propose. However, we are aware of the fact that we, with our limited structures, cannot handle it by ourselves. We need all of you, and all your active support and strength, to ask, require and commit to your own Parliamentary representatives, your own Governments, your newspaper and medias, your parties, movements and organizations, to put strong pressure on the U.N. Assembly in order to support the ICC. We think that a strong and wide action by the international community, like in 1993 with the establishment of the ad hoc Tribunals in the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, is the only possible way to protect and keep up the work and proposals made by the Preparatory Committee and by everybody else who committed to the struggle for universal justice.

>>> INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

FIRST AND IMPORTANT VICTORY: PROPOSAL FOR A DIPLOMATIC CONFERENCE IN 1998. THE INTERNATIONAL OPINION MUST SUPPORT THE ICC.

From August 12 to 30, the Second Session of the International Criminal Court Preparatory Committee took place at the United Nations in New York. The session successfully faced several juridical questions, but a lot of technical problems remained questionable.

* New York, August 21st - The ICC Preparatory Committee President, Adriaan Bos, met a Transnational Radical Party and an International "There is no Peace without Justice" Committee delegation, led by Marino Busdachin, who delivered an "Appeal to the Preparatory Committee" signed by 400 deputies from 36 different countries.

President Bos remarked that "even if we still need to face a lot of technical-juridical aspects of the Statute, the work must be kept up in both U.N. headquarters and in the Capitals worldwide. Signatures collected by the Transnational Radical Party and "There is no Peace without Justice" are an example of good information, pressure and commitment of extreme importance."

* New York, August 30th - At the end of its work, the Preparatory Committee has approved a final document which recommends the General Assembly to extend the mandate to the Committee itself. According to the Committee, a few more sessions are needed, which should be held before April 1998, so that a consolidated text can be prepared in view of a plenipotentiary Diplomatic Conference. The Committee also urges to call upon a date for the Conference before the end of 1998.

More than 20 countries among which there is China, Japan, Cuba and Indonesia have kept their adversity on the establishment of the ICC and intend to express this during the 6th Committee of the U.N. General Assembly which will take place next November. The list of countries in favour of the ICC, led by the European Community, Russia, Australia, Argentina, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand has become larger; however, countries like the USA, Great Britain, France and India remained against the proceedings with urgency and see the establishment of the ICC after the year 2000.

Now, the action is in the hands of the International Community again: what we need is a campaign to force the UN Member States to maintain the same commitment which made possible the establishment, by the Security Council, of the ad hoc Tribunals in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Otherwise, the enormous potentiality, deterrent in an ICC, will never become a concrete way to avoid slaughters, massacres and genocides of fresh memory as well as those announced and expected. The next appointment will be in November in New York.

>>> UNITED NATIONS - MINORITIES

Geneva, August 12th-30th. - A T.R.P. delegation (among the members, the former U.S.A. Senator John Nimrod) attended the 48th U.N. session of the subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, in Geneva. The TRP delegation - besides giving constant information in support of the denied rights of several populations that are discriminated because of their race, religion, language and culture (especially in East-Turkestan, Papua, East Timor, Kosova, Sangiacco (Serbia), Chittagong Hill Tracts, Burma, Lakota Nation, Crimean Tartars, Rwanda, Chechya and Inguscezia - also took part in the debate on human rights in Iraq and in the racial discrimination of Assyrians, Curds and Turkomens by the Iraqi, requesting the UN to guarantee an equal distribution of humanitarian aids. In addition, our delegation has presented a written report on the population transfer in Tibet.

>>> ANTIPROHIBITIONISM

Italy, August 1st. The Senatorial Health Commission, thanks the remarkable work done by Cora, by several Parliamentarians of the "Ulivo" coalition and by its Commission President, in order to abrogate the norm which reserved the faculty to prescribe methadon only to those physicians authorized by the State. The Senate will discuss the decree-law in September.

Brussels, August 9th. The Belgian CORA specified in a letter to the editor that the appeal, released by the coordination, to the Belgian Parliament basically regards the drug legalization process and it points out two specific goals: the decriminalization of the use and custody, and the creation of a legal drugs distribution system in opposition to the illegal market organized by the criminal groups. The appeal has been signed by tens of University Professors, doctors and Deputies. The collecting of signatures will continue until December, in view of the conclusion of the Parliamentary Commission of Drugs in Belgium.

An important debate on this campaign will take place during CORA's International Congress, on December 5th to 7th.

>>> ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY

USA. Atlanta, July 26th. A group of Italian athletes attended the Olympic games in Atlanta (the fencing team, marchers and marathon runners, roughly 30 athletes) in support of the "Hands off Cain" initiative, and asked to visit the death house in the prison of Atlanta. They wanted to do this action in favour of the moratoria on death penalty presented to the UN. The prison principal refused to give permission to the delegation.

>>> EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT - INTERNET

Brussels, July. The T.R.P. released an e-mail appeal to the European Parliament and to the "Mediator" in order to make it more accessible.

The appeal requires the possibility to send petitions and denunciations via e-mail to the European Parliament and to the European "Mediator".

It is possible to sign the appeal via e-mail: (Web: http://www.agora.stm.it/democracy). You can also receive the form via: M.Cappato@agora.stm.it or via the Editor.

>>> FREEDOM FOR TIBET - DEMOCRACY FOR CHINA

Dharamsala, India. During the second week of August, the T.R.P. secretary, Olivier Dupuis, and the European Union Commissioner for humanitarian aids, Emma Bonino, met a couple of times His Holiness the Dalai Lama, members of the Tibetan Government in exile and Department secretaries. The reason of the meetings was to discuss next months' political initiatives for the freedom of occupied Tibet. Further information in Tibet-fax #31 and #32 :

via fax :+316.1187937 or via e-mail: M.Lensi@agora.stm.it

>>> INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE - ESPERANTO

Italy. By the decree-law of July 30th by the Ministry of Education, the Esperanto Radical Association was entrusted to organize a refreshing course of the international language to all the Italian teachers on: "Fundapax Italia, for the acquisition of innovative competence for the teaching of foreign language and intercultural education. The course will start in November and takes place at the Radical Party's main office in Rome.

>>> 1996 ENROLLMENT CAMPAIGN

Adelaide AGLIETTA, Radical Party Deputy and Radical Party Secretary in 1997-78 and at present Green Group Deputy at the European Parliament, has renewed her enrollment for the Radical Party.

Vasil MELO, Deputy and President of the Human Rights Party (Union of Minorities) in Albania, joined the Radical Party in 1996.

>>> ENCLOSED

APPEAL TO THE PARLIAMENTARIANS WORLDWIDE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

TO THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL-SECRETARY,

TO ALL MEMBER STATES OF THE UNITED NATIONS' GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S SIXTH COMMITTEE,

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE PREPARATORY COMMITTEE.

We, Parliamentarians from everywhere in the world,

- considering the multiplication of war crimes and crimes against humanity which are perpetuated in several countries and remain unpunished;

- considering that the public opinion is widely aware of the necessity to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes with justice;

- considering the necessity and the urge to organize a first nucleus of international justice, strictly impartial, in order to try, in the first place, war crimes and crimes against humanity, no matter what their origin is;

- stressing the significant progress in this direction, realized with the creation and the first concrete acts done by the ad hoc Tribunals in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda;

- pleasing that in both of the ad hoc Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and in the ICC Statutes, the death penalty is not included;

- considering that the fiftieth Session of the United Nations' General Assembly, in the Autumn of 1995, has formally decided to entrust a Preparatory Committee to prepare the ICC Statute, in order to give the United Nations the possibility to convene a Diplomatic Conference for the establishment of an International Criminal Court;

- considering that the Preparatory Committee has closed its last session on August 30th, asking the United Nations General Assembly to convene a Diplomatic Conference within the end of 1998;

- considering that, in spite of the positive result that has been reached thanks to the determination of numerous Member States of the European Community in the first place, a few countries are still strongly opposed and there are also some reticences of two Member States of the European Union, which should be removed in order to ensure a definitive consolidation of an international penal jurisdiction;

- considering that the Italian Government has already offered its own availability in order to hold a Plenipotentiary Diplomatic Conference for the establishment of an International Criminal Court;

WE MAKE A SOLEMN APPEAL

that the United Nations' General Assembly, during its 51st Session, extends, without delay, the mandate to the Preparatory Committee and makes the decision to convene a Plenipotentiary Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of a International Criminal Court, before the end of 1988.

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