ABSTRACT: Ibrahima Fall gave the Radical Abolizionist delegation a sincere and moving welcome

(WORLDWIDE PARLIAMENTARY CAMPAIGN FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY BY THE YEAR 200 - Radical party/International League for the abolition of the death penalty by the year 2000)

It was 3.00 p.m. and we were ready for our meeting with Ibrahima Fall, General Secretary of the U.N. World Conference on Human Rights. We were going to present him with more than 60,000 signatures that we had collected, in 66 countries, on two appeals adressed to the U.N.. Together with the signatures, we were also going to deliver motions that were put to the vote by Town Councils, and Regional and Provincial Councils, in Italy, in support of U.N. actions to progressively and definitively abolish the death penalty worldwide by 2000 and to set up a Criminal Court to try war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.

We were all pretty excited. This meeting was the most important moment of the Vienna Conference for us. We had been working flat out for over a month, wherever there was a member of the Radical Party or of the International League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty. These dedicated people collected signatures from parliamentarians, people from the world of culture and science, and others who are committed to promoting civil rights and soldidarity between peoples. These are just some of the activists who helped us: Gaqo Aostoli, MP - Albania; Luis Mendao - Portugal; Basile Guissou, former Minister for Foreign Affairs - Burkina Faso; Mollé Mollé, MP - Ivory Coast; François Fejtö, historian - Hungary; Irina Podlesova - Russia; Antonio Del Pennino and Emma Bonino, MPs - Italy; Annamaria Procacci, member of the Senate - Italy; Ramsey Clark, former Minister of Justice - U.S.A.; Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Prizewinner - Ireland; Cyril Pillay, MP - South Africa; Lucio Bertê - Italy. And the dozens of I

talian activists, who were always out there working in the hot sun and amidst the traffic fumes. We would like to thank each and every one of you.

Thousands of signatures also arrived from other countries via the Radical newspaper "The New Party", which is sent to over 200,000 people, including 40,000 parliamentarians worldwide, and translated into 15 languages.

Ibrahima Fall was a little late in receiving us, and this caused him some concern.

"I would first like to apologise for the delay in receiving you and to tell you how happy I am to meet you. I would also like to say how much I admire the commitment you are making and the determination and political will with which you are working to uphold human rights. It is obvious that someone who campaigns against the death penalty is also campaigning to obtain greater respect for human dignity. From this standpoint, the praiseworthy objective you have achieved with these tens of thousands of signatures just goes to prove that various peoples have become aware of this probnlem and that it should, therefore, receive the urgent attention of the International Community. I shall not fail to inform Boutros Ghali, the Secretary General of the U.N., about our meeting, which I find extremely symbolic as it falls on the eve of the World Conference on Human Rights. I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you that the Secretary General wishes to give his wholehearted support to your action, to your cam

paign. It is our great hope that the Conference which will begin tomorrow, will deal more thoroughly with this fundamental aspect of human rights, which are in fact negated by the death penalty. With regard to this, I would like to add that the last meeting of the Security Council was dedicated to the setting up of a special Court for the former Yugoslavia, which will have no recourse whatsoever to the death penalty. A great number of NGOs - nongovernmental organizations - and other political forces, which are actively campaigning for human rights, have come to this World Conference to propose creating an International Court for Human Rights and an International Criminal Court: the problem of capital punishment will therefore be at the heart of the discussions at this U.N. Conference. I hope that we will come out of it with a number of practical indications that will allow us to follow the direction your campaign is taking. As far as I myself am concerned, I would like to repeat that you have all my support;

that I would like to establish a continuous dialogue with you, and that I hope we can meet regularly with a view to organizing a joint action.

The symbolic figure of Mahatma Gandhi, whom you have chosen as a figurehead for your political action, goes straight to the heart of those people who, at the close of this century marked by a return of unrestrained violence, aspire to a world in which brotherhood, peace and solidarity reign.

I would simply like to say that I radically agree with you."