Rome, September 28--N.R.--The "Week against Executions", promoted in Italy jointly by the Italian Section of Amnesty International and Do Not Kill--as a part of Amnesty's world-wide campaign, was concluded yesterday with a very successful candle-light procession in protest against the death penalty.

Yesterday, thousands of citizens--in spite of the rain which poured down during the early hours of the afternoon--participated in the demonstration which had two specific objectives:

--to request the Italian government to begin an international "offensive" in favour of a three-year moratorium on executions, to convoke, within two years, an international Conference on the death penalty--also based on the Resolution approved last August 3 by a wide majority of the Chamber, with a favorable ruling by the government itself. This action could provide substantial hopes for considerable acceleration of current abolitionist tendencies and favour the rapid putting into force of the Second Optional Protocol of the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights and the international Convention on the rights of children which would oblige the signing States to abolish the death penalty in peacetime, forbidding its application absolutely in the case of minors;

--to request the Italian government to present a bill for the abolition of the death penalty in the wartime military penal code, in application of the Motion approved by the Chamber during the same session on August 3.

The Week against Executions and its conclusion yesterday constitute an qualitative improvement probably without precedent in the area of human rights actions, a qualitative improvement in effectiveness and concreteness in mobilization and its objectives.

The promoting organizations (the Italian Section of Amnesty and Do Not Kill) announce that the pursuit of these extremely important objectives will be continued with maximum effort, so that the Italian government will also respond positively with instance of civility which has always been one of the most precious characteristics of Italian citizens and Parliament.

THE NEXT IMPORTANT APPOINTMENT--WHICH WILL CONSTITUTE ANOTHER MOMENT OF TRUTH--IS THE NATIONAL CONVENTION ON THE DEATH PENALTY TO TAKE PLACE ON DECEMBER 10, IN FLORENCE, ON THE 41ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN.