ABSTRACT: Last November, the Organization for Peace amongst European and Mediterranean Peoples promoted a seminar "For the Abolition of the Death Penalty in the Mediterranean".

(THE NEW PARTY, MARCH 1993)

In the face of all the different traditions, cultures, religions, legislation and sacred texts, it would simply be a mistake to forbid that the death penalty be carried out. Instead of choosing a prohibitionist approach, it would be wiser to follow a strategy of strict regulations, also in the case of legal executions.

In the unitarian countries of the Islamic world - Iran, Sudan and many of the Gulf countries - whose penal laws come straight out of the Koran, the aim is to protect the individual's rights with binding laws in more and more areas: by introducing positive laws, regulations for criminal procedure, the right to defence and, ultimately, free pardon.

At the end of the Seminar, the "Committe for the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Mediterranean Countries" was set up, whose statute specifies that it will operate as part of the Radical Party Campaign. The Committee has set itself a first deadline: to organize, within a year, an important "convention" of jurists, parliamentarians, organizations and politcal parties from the Arab and Mediterranean world.