BULLETIN OF INFORMATION AND ACTION ON THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY
#13, June 16TH, 1997
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* Editor: Sandro Ottoni, Ilica 8 - 10000 Zagreb (Croatia)
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
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1047 Bruxelles (B); Tel.+32-2-2304121, Fax +32-2-2303670.
* Published in
Albanese, Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, English, Italian, French, Polish, Romanian, Russian, and Spanish.
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Dear friends,
The European Parliament's resolution in support of the universal moratorium of capital executions herewith enclosed represents, after the document was adopted by the last session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, another achievement by TRP. It is a very important step towards the adoption, by the United Nations, of a moratorium of capital executions for which, together with "Hands off Cain," we have struggled in the last four years.
But a "piece of paper" will not be enough if it is not supported by that public mobilization and organization that today we call the Transnational Radical Party.
In this regard we want our readers to know that we have started a profound restructuring of the means and financial resources that we have used in the past years. As regards Eastern Europe, where we have been present with offices and officials since the Budapest Congress of 1989, and where TRP decided to operate with a view of the transition towards democracy and European Federalism, tremendous changes have shaken the region. New politicians and new issues have risen, such as the process of the "European" integration of the "Easterners," issues with dozens of contradictions and negative past attitudes by the EU emblematic in this way is the case of Albania. In this context the role of TRP had to be different.
The limited financial resources at our disposal do not allow us a structured presence in that region. Since the Sofia Congress in 1993, TRP has chosen to become the party for the reform of the UN, and, in what regards to this choice, we have reorganized our global as well as regional initiatives.
Our restructuring is almost done; we have closed some of our offices in Central and Eastern Europe, with the exceptions of Moscow, and Budapest, that now, more than in the past, will be the coordinators of actions and people (a virtual force due to the absence of members), with Brussels, Rome and New York as their point of reference.
The "Light Party" model that we are trying to apply wants to increase the use of communication technologies. This same bulletin, conceived as a via-fax newsletter, now has more e-mail addresses in its directory than fax numbers. Moreover, a virtual TRP office can be contacted through the internet (http://www.agora.stm.it/pr), allowing us to be present in parts of the world simply unthinkable some months ago.
For the effective success of this new project we need the help of the readers of this bulletin. We need interaction and feedback, we need your opinion, comment, commitment for a campaign, contribution and membership; we need people from Tokyo to Moscow, from Sidney to New Delhi for the success of this new way of political action rooted in international law and nonviolence.
Good work!
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UNIVERSAL ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY
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>> THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ASKS THE COUNCIL AND THE MEMBER STATES TO PROMOTE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A MORATORIUM AND TO MUSTER SUPPORT FOR ABOLITION IN THE NEW TREATY WITHIN THE UNITED NATIONS.
Strasbourg, June 12, 1997.
The European Parliament has adopted, by a majority vote, an urgent resolution on the abolition of the death penalty as a result of the proposals presented by TRP Secretary Olivier DUPUIS (ARE), Adelaide AGLIETTA (Greens), Andre SOULIER (PPE), and Alexandros ALAVANOS (GUE), thereby confirming the work being done in favor of a universal abolition of the death penalty.
The European Parliament has advanced a series of specific proposals and requests, there among them:
- the presentation, on behalf of the EU, to the General Assembly of the United Nations, of a resolution for the introduction of a universal moratorium of capital punishments;
- the incorporation, in the new Treaty of the Union, of an article for the prohibition of the death penalty,
- the signing and ratification, by candidates for membership in the European Council, of optional protocol No. 2 of the International Pact which is relative to civil and political rights;
- the consideration of the question of the abolition of the death penalty in the negotiation of all accords of partnership and cooperation;
- the abolition of the death penalty by all of the members of the ACP-UE convention;
Statement by Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and Deputy to the European Parliament:
"Before the indifference to the death penalty and its ever growing application in many countries, beginning with the People's Republic of China and the United States, it is extremely important that the abolitionist nations assume the initiative. The resolution of the European Parliament invites the European Union to dedicate itself with resolve to this question, and making itself a particular promoter of an initiative within the United Nations. An initiative that will allow us to introduce, one hundred years after the abolition of slavery, the universal abolition of the death penalty within international law."
Follows the text approved by the EP.
EP/Death penalty abolition: resolution
(a)B4-0468, 0487, 0497, 0513 and 0542/97
Resolution on the abolition of the death penalty
The European Parliament,
- having regard to its previous resolutions on the abolition of the death penalty,
- having regard to Resolution 1047 of 1996 and Recommendation 1302 of 1996 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the abolition of the death penalty in Europe,
- having regard to the resolutions on the abolition of the death penalty adopted by the ACP-EU Joint Assembly on 26 September 1996 and 20 March 1997,
- having regard to the latest UN report on the death penalty (E/CN.15/1996/19),
- having regard to the resolution adopted by the 53rd session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on the death penalty (E/CN.4/1997/L.20),
A. having regard to the rapid increase in the use of the death penalty throughout the world,
B. welcoming the recent complete abolition of the death penalty in 1995 and 1996 in Italy, Spain, Belgium, Moldova and Macedonia,
C. welcoming the fact that Russia has signed the Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights which makes abolition of the death penalty a legal obligation, but regretting that the Russian Duma has rejected a bill on a moratorium on executions,
D. welcoming the fact that, over the last two years, international organizations such as the Council of Europe, the Latin American Parliament and the ACP-EU Joint Assembly have adopted resolutions in favour of a universal moratorium on executions,
E. seriously concerned by recent reports that in some member states of the Council of Europe executions are still taking place, notably in Ukraine, where 167 executions took place in 1996,
F. whereas 28 members of the Council of Europe have abolished the death penalty for all crimes,
G. whereas, of the countries which are members of the Council of Europe, Cyprus, Malta and the UK have not abolished the death penalty for exceptional crimes and Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Turkey are de facto abolitionist, but still retain the death penalty on their statute books,
H. whereas seven members of the Council of Europe have signed, but not yet ratified, the Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and nine member countries have not yet signed it,
I. regretting that numerous members of the Council of Europe have not yet signed the second optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
J. deploring the widespread use of the death penalty in the People's Republic of China,
K. deploring the growing use of the death penalty in the majority of federal states in the USA,
L. whereas Italy has tabled a proposal to the IGC to ban the death penalty in the new EU Treaty,
1. Reaffirms its strong opposition to use of the death penalty anywhere in the world and calls on all countries to adopt a moratorium on executions and to abolish the death penalty;
2. Calls on the Intergovernmental Conference to introduce a ban on the death penalty in the new Treaty on European Union;
3. Calls on those European states that retain the death penalty, without having recourse to it, to abolish it definitively for all crime as rapidly as possible;
4. Requests Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova and the Russian Federation to ratify the Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and requests Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom to sign it;
5. Urges the Russian Federation and Ukraine to honor their commitments to the Council of Europe and immediately to adopt a moratorium and abolish the death penalty;
6. Proposes that candidate countries for accession to the Council of Europe should undertake to sign and ratify the second optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as a condition of membership;
7. Calls on those signatories to the ACP-EU Convention that have not already done so to abolish the death penalty as rapidly as possible;
8. Considers that the abolition of the death penalty must be taken into account in all negotiations concerning partnership and cooperation agreements;
9. Calls on the Commission to pay special attention to the death penalty in its annual reports on human rights clauses in agreements between the EU and third countries;
10. Calls on the Council, the Member States and the Commission, acting within its remit, to table at the UN General Assembly a resolution on the introduction of a universal moratorium on executions;
11. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the parliaments of the Member States of the EU, the parliaments and governments of the member countries of the Council of Europe, the ACP countries, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the People's Republic of China and the Unites States, the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe and the President of its Parliamentary Assembly, and the Secretary-General of the UN and the President of its General Assembly.
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INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
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>> Paris: NPWJ's First Conference
On June 19-20 the first of several conferences will take place in Paris on the establishment of the International Criminal Court. This, the first conference organized by No Peace Without Justice, which is federated to the Transnational Radical Party, has as its objective to reinforce and support the creation of the first segment of international justice, which would establish the International Criminal Court. This campaign should conclude itself after a series of international appointments in South America, North America, Africa, and Asia, with the convocation in Rome, in the spring of 1998, of a Plenipotentiary Conference for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. It is a long journey, of which the Paris meeting is only the first of many important steps. The work schedule follows.
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1997/1998 International Campaign
- for the establishment of an International Criminal Court
- and support of the activity of the ad hoc tribunal for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
INAUGURAL CONFERENCE - PARIS,
JUNE 19-20 , 1997
Senate, Palais du Luxembourg
Presidency: Ms. Emma BONINO, European Commissioner, Mr. Robert Badinter, Senator with the contribution of the "Open Society Institute".
a) Thursday June 19th
* Opening Session
- Ms. Emma Bonino, European Commissioner
- Mr. Robert Badinter, Senator
* Round Table: "From Nuremburg and the ad hoc Tribunals to the International Criminal Court"
Chairman Mr. Michael Rocard, member of the European Parliament, former Prime Minister ( France);
* Keynote Speakers
- Mr. Cherif Bassiouni, Professor of International Law, President of the "International Human Rights Law Institute De Paul University", Vice-Chairman of the UN Preparatory Committee for the establishment of an ICC;
- Mr. Antonio Cassese, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia;
- Mr. Giovanni Conso, former Minister of Justice;
- Mr. Benjamin Ferencz, former Nuremberg Prosecutor, NGO Coalition for an ICC;
- Mr. Larry Kama, President of the Rwanda ad hoc Tribunal
- Mr. William Schabas, Professor of Law, University of Quebec.
* Round Table: "Towards the convening of the 1998 Diplomatic Conference for the establishment of an International Criminal Court"
Chairman: Mr. Gijs de Vries, President of the Group of the European Liberal, Democratic and Reform Party at the European Parliament
Keynote Speakers
- Mr. Adriaan Bos, Chairman of the UN Preparatory Committee on the establishment of the International Criminal Court;
- Mr. Christofer Hall, Legal Advisor, Amnesty International;
- Mr. Mauro Politi, Professor of International Law, Legal Advisor to the Permanent mission of Italy to The United Nations;
- Mr. John Shattuk, US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour;
b) Friday June 20th
* Round Table: "A worldwide campaign for the establishment of the International Criminal Court"
Chairman: Mr. Gianfranco Dell'Alba, Memver of the European Parliament;
Keynote Speakers
- Ms Louise Arbour, Chief Prosecutor, international Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda;
- Mr. William Bourdon, Secretary General, Federation International des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme;
- Mr. Marino Busdachin, Secretary General, No Peace Without Justice;
- Ms. Herta Daubler Gmelin, Member of the German Parliament
- Mr. Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and Member of the European Parliament;
- Ms. Daniela Napoli, Chief of the Human Rights and Democratization Unit of the European Commission;
- Mr. Thomas Warrick, NGO Coalition for International Justice.
Closing Session: "Adoption of an International Appeal for the establishment of the International Criminal Court.
Chairman: Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Former UN Secretary General.
Rapporteurs:
- Mr. Robert Badinter, Senator;
- Ms. Emma Bonino, European Commissioner
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ANTIPROHIBITIONISM ON DRUGS
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>> CORA DEMONSTRATION IN BRUSSELS
In these days the Belgian Parliament is discussing the final adoption of a report on drugs. It is a prohibitionist document that, paradoxically, perfectly describes the failure of prohibitionist policies not only in Belgium but also throughout the world.
CORA Belgique has organized a series of consecutive demonstrations before the offices of the Belgian political parties that will be held every Monday morning in order to stimulate public opinion and the opinion of Parliamentarians concerning the contradictions of the document in discussion. CORA has also elaborated a counter-report, which was presented to the media fifteen days ago during a press conference in the Parliament together with the Ecolo/Agalev organization. The participants in the conference included CORA Secretary Eric Picard, Liberal Senator Paul Boel, Ecologist Deputy Franz Lozie, and Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party Olivier Dupuis.
For more information on the ANTIPROHIBITIONIST FAX contact: Tel: +32-2-2304121 Fax: +32-2-2303670 - E-Mail: cora.belgique@agora.stm.it - cora.italia@agora.stm.it (Tel.++39-6-689.791).
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INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
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>> UNITED NATIONS: N.G.O. COALITION FOR AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
New York, May/June 1997 - As a result of its Category 1 status as an N.G.O., the Transnational Radical Party has requested experimentation with the use of the international language Esperanto as a language of work to a United Nations commission. Unfortunately, the "Committee on N.G.O.'s" was unable to complete its work session on June 12th, as was scheduled, and as a result could not take the TRP recommendation into consideration, thus postponing the discussion until January of 1998.
In order to better coordinate the lobbying in New York and Geneva, the TRP has promoted an N.G.O. coalition which includes the Universala Esperanto Asocio, the World Federalist Movement, and the Temple of Understanding, all of whom fully support the radical proposal to the U.N.
In the coming months the coalition will, from its TRP office in New York, continue its efforts to contact and pressure members of the committee.
For more information:
TRP / 866 UN Plaza #408 / Tel: (212) 980-1031 Fax 980-1072
E-Mail trans.rad.ny@agora.stm.it
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EUROPEAN SECURITY
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>> EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: DECLARATION IN FAVOR OF THE CREATION OF A COMMON DIPLOMACY
Strasburg, June 12th, 1997 - Before the announced tragedy of the Intergovernmental Conference in Amsterdam regarding the reform of Foreign Policy and Common Security (PESC), the European Parliament has shown that precise solutions that would permit us to accomplish significant progress not only exist, but that they can also be met with a broad consensus.
In the "Spencer Report" on the progress that has been made in the elaboration of PESC, the European Parliament "asks the member states of the Union for that the delegation of the Commission be used for the exclusive representation of our proper interests, beyond those of the Union, in those nations where we do not have a diplomatic presence."
The Secretary of the TRP praised the declaration by stating that:
"Whether it will be the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, beginning with Quai D'Orsay or the Foreign Office, who will present the greatest obstacle to the creation of a common foreign policy and, as a consequence, a common diplomacy, is a unknown to us. Strangely enough, however, there has been a phenomenon of collective removal on this subject."
"By allowing the member states, who wish to do so, a time to decide whether to trust the Commission's delegation to represent their interests beyond those of the Union would permit all of the Member States the opportunity to be represented throughout the world (keep in mind that ten of the member states are present in less than 90 of the 200 nation that make up the international community), it would equally allow the construction of a truly European diplomacy."
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FREEDOM FOR TIBET/DEMOCRACY FOR CHINA
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>> CHINA/EP/MCMILLAN-SCOTT REPORT
The European Parliament has approved a report on an "a long-term orientation for relations between China-Europe" (Mcmillan-Scott Report). On the initiative of TRP Secretary and European Deputy Olivier Dupuis, various amendments were added concerning Tibet, Mongolia, Eastern Turkistan, Taiawn, and Hong Kong, as well as on the violation of human rights throughout China. In the next issue of "Freedom for Tibet-Democracy for China Fax" an analysis of this important document, which was approved by the European Parliament, will be published.
For more information on FREEDOM FOR TIBET/DEMOCRACY FOR CHINA FAX: Tel: +36-1-266.34.86 - 266.09.35 Fax: 11.87.937 - E-Mail M.Lensi@agora.stm.it - WWW-URL: http//:www.agora.stm.it/pr/
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LOOK WHO'S JOINED THE TRP....
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>> SUBSCRIPTION 1997-ITALY: FLAVIO RODEGHIERO, DEPUTY OF THE NORTHERN LEAGUE
Rome, June 5th, 1997 - Following a meeting with Olivier Dupuis and paolo Pietrosanti, Northern league Deputy Flavio Rodeghiero joined the Transnational Radical Party, confirming in this way his dedication to the campaign for the abolition of capital punishment, the freedom of Tibet, and European security.
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SUBSCRIPTION FEES 1997: The subscription fes vary from nation to nation, according to the criteria of 1% of the PIL. They follow the fees relative to the distibution of the bulletin in the nations where it is most diffuse. For the missing nations, please contact the editorial office.
Albania 5 USD - Austria 2.400 ATS - Azerbajian 3 USD - Belgium 7.000 BEF - Bulgaria 8 USD - Canada 285 CAD - Czech Republic 27 USD - Croatia 35 DEM - Denmark 1.800 DKK - France 1.300 FRF - Germany 460 DEM - Hungary 27 USD -Ireland 78 IEP - Italy 365.000 LIT - Netherlands 370 NLG - Poland 23 USD - Portugal 11.600 PTE - Rumania 12 USD - Russia 19 USD - Slovenia 85 DEM - Spain 17.600 ESB - Switzerland 500 CHF - Ukraine 13 USD - United Kingdom 129 GBP - United States 260 USD
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