We the undersigned,

believe that the right of every human being not to be killed as the consequence of legal sentences or measures, even when these are issued in accordance with the law, should be upheld in every juridical system as a new, fundamental individual right.

We appeal to the United Nations to act immediately, by drawing up documents and programmes and promoting them at international level, to ensure that this new principle in the sphere of Justice and laws is turned into practice, at the dawn of the new millenium, all over the world.

We ask that countries which inflict the death penalty on minors, pregant women, persons with mental handicaps, and old people be urged to accept or respect the exclusions laid down in these cases by the international conventions, exclusions which have by now become common practice around the world.

We ask that, when coups d'état occur, the Security Council should intervene to impose a moratorium on executions for a period of one year, to obtain full rights to a fair trial for the accused, and to impose sanctions and deny international recognition if such rights are not respected.

We ask that a three-year moratorium on executions be imposed on countries which maintain the death peanalty in order to allow the new individual right to be introduced into statutes.

We ask that the recourse to the death penalty be excluded from the proposal for an international tribunal responsible for sitting judgement on serious crimes.

(promoted by the Radical Party and the "International League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty by the Year 2000" - Committee for the promotion and co-ordination of activities)