DEATH PENALTY: THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS APPROVES A RESOLUTION ON THE MORATORIUM OF CAPITAL EXECUTIONS.

DECLARATION OF OLIVIER DUPUIS, SECRETARY OF THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY AND MEP.

Geneva, April 3, 1998. The UN Commission on Human Rights has approved a resolution on the moratorium of capital executions: 26 in favor, 13 against, 12 abstentions and 2 absents.

Oliver Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and Member of the European Parliament has declared:

"We have to thank the growing 'majority' of abolitionist states of the world. Our long struggle against the death penalty is today scoring a new goal towards the establishment of a moratorium on capital executions by the United Nations.

"We are particularly grateful to Italy its diplomacy and Government, for their important role on this issue, a leadership that they have shared this year with Ireland in a worldly campaign focused on fundamental Human Rights.

"We are also thankful to 'Hands Off Cain' the organization federated with the Radical Party, for their deep commitment to this radical campaign, to the other 70 co-sponsors of the document, to hundreds of parliamentarians that have pushed for the issue in national parliaments in order to influence their governments, to the dozens of thousands of abolitionist citizens that are active all over the world.

"We should keep up the momentum and be ready for the next step, a resolution for the UN General Assembly in New York that will eventually establish the actual universal moratorium."

Radical Party

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