- Sofia, 18 july 1993 -

ABSTRACT: The conclusive resolution of the General Council underlines the importance of the message sent by the U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali, as well as the of the documents in which the United Nations and the international community have taken a stance on the grave problems of the world which is threatened not only by military events but also by the new sources of instability "in the humanitarian and environmental fields".

These lines of address, the resolution underlines, are not matched by initiatives that endow the U.N. with the necessary means and instruments for their application. In order for this to take place, a "subject, a political force" is needed to operate exclusively in the transnational field to support the U.N. Such new subject seems to be the transnational radical party, if this assumes responsibility of taking initiatives on the points listed below as unquestionable priorities.

The same discrepancy between the intentions and enunciations and the means to achieve them applies also to the major environmental projects. The radical party will need to operate in the environmental issue launching specific campaigns starting from the area of central and eastern Europe.

There follow the themes relative to the "rights of the individual" and the problem of AIDS, examined specifically from the point of view of the needs of the African continent.

The resolution, therefore, to avert a new financial crisis for the party, invites parliamentarians in particular to assume direct responsibilities to make the offices and initiatives assumed in the various countries progressively autonomous, and to produce the "parliamentary newsletter" envisioned by the party without further depending on the resources of the central headquarters.

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At its meeting in Sofia held on 17th and 18th of July 1993, the General Council of the Transnational Radical Party

Welcomes the message sent by the U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, emphasizing in particular the part which reads that "the imperative of peace should become instiled in the consciousness of individuals; the imperative of development is by now perceived as a right of man; democracy is our new imperative".

The General Council also accepts and endorses the U.N. Security Council "Declaration" passed at the Meeting of the Heads of State and Government held on 31 January 1992 as well as the Declaration of Rio de Janeiro and "Agenda 21" on environmental protection and sustainable development, which warn that the major threats to peace and security are no longer only military, but come also from the growing instability in the humanitarian and environmental spheres.

The General Council points out, however, that these relevant statements of principle are not, as yet, matched by appropriate instruments for specific day-to-day implementation. At the transnational and supranational levels, there are still no positive and explicit legal provisions recognized by nations and individuals. Efficient structures and instruments for their enforcement, for prevention of violations and imposition of relevant sanctions are not available either. The most important institution with such tasks, the system of the United Nations and the Security Council in particular, lacks the requisite means and resources as well as full democratic legitimacy; therefore, its action fails to acquire the necessary authority, generating frustration and distrust among peoples.

There hardly exists a region in the world where peace and security are not threatened. The borders between the new states on the territory of the former Soviet Union are the object of dispute: human rights are being suppressed from Nagorno Karabakh to Moldavia, and even the most outstanding historic and cultural monuments are subjected to irrational and outrageous destruction. Particularly dangerous are the devastating conflicts in former Yugoslavia, taking into account the possible consequences for the all-European equilibrium. It is necessary to put an end to the military actions of the Yugoslav Federation (Serbia and Montenegro) with its unacceptable claims for territorial expansion through ethnic cleansing and genocide; but it is also necessary to halt the high-handedness and violence over the cultural, ethnic and territorial groups. Likewise, in Somalia it is necessary to undertake and complete a rapid and unswerving process of disarmament of the warring parties and create conditions for democratic stat

e life in response to the aspirations of the majority of the people. Regrettably, both in former Yugoslavia and in Somalia, where it has received a mandate, the United Nations cannot fulfil the role which the conscience and hopes of all peoples in the world ask of this organization.

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In order to formulate and attain objectives such as the ones contained in the message of the U.N. Secretary-General, the U.N. Security Council statements, "Agenda 21" and all other documents discussed on supranational level, urgent and resolute efforts are necessary to promote the initiative for unification and mobilization of individuals and nations. A political subject or force is needed to operate firmly and decisively on a transnational level to that end. In the course of the discussion of the General Council of the Transnational Radical Party this need was spelled out and emphasized, and this task was assigned to the statutory organs. While aware of all the difficulties of this undertaking and of the limited resources available, the TRP General Council believes that the following priority objectives can attract numerous new members and promote powerful initiatives and political struggles with non-violent Gandhian means:

1 - to obtain the respect of the commitments and time limits for the establishment of an International tribunal to try war crimes in the former Yugoslavia in accordance with the forms and ways established by the United Nations, paying particular attention to the crimes related to the "ethnic cleansing" and ongoing genocide in Bosnia;

2 - to make active efforts in various fora, especially in Parliaments, so that the recognition of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) is linked, as is the case with the other republics, to the establishment or restoration of genuine constitutional and legislative guarantees for the rights of individuals and people which are being suppressed in Bosnia and seriously violated in Kosovo and Vojvodina;

3 - to take all possible steps within the framework of the campaign to abolish the death penalty by the year 2000 so that in the near future the right of every human being not to be killed by virtue of law may be incorporated in the inviolable international law (jus cogens), also through U.N. resolutions;

4 - to co-ordinate and promote initiatives and efforts to abrogate or amend international conventions that bind the member states to a policy of drug prohibition and to use the formation of anti-prohibitionist transnational groups in various Parliaments for modification of national and regional drug policies aimed at:

a) a new policy to combat crime in order to break the spiral "more police, more drug trafficking";

b) a policy of harm-reduction on the model of the experience of the cities that endorsed the Frankfurt resolution;

c) promoting the initiatives of the International Anti-Prohibitionist League affiliated to the Radical party;

5 - to take active steps in Parliaments and international organizations to support the diffusion and gradual formal adoption of the international language Esperanto as a specific instrument to guarantee the right to language, to protect the linguistic and cultural ecosystem on the planet, to develop on a supranational level a common world identity belonging to a single human family.

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The innovative guidelines which the United Nations have endorsed in the Declaration of Rio de Janeiro, "Agenda 21" and the other programmatic documents, in spite of the shortcomings, introduce deep-going changes in national and international policies with respect to environmental protection and sustainable development both in industrial and less developed regions: the environmental problem affects not only separate sectors, but it becomes an essential element of the international system of security, development and democracy which constitutes the major challenge of our time. But on these issues too, there is a discrepancy between declarations in principle and specific goals, resources, instruments and obligations. Also, the definition of a legal system consistent with the scope of the problem is either lacking or insufficient. Therefore, it is also in this field that the Party has to undertake initiatives with specified time limits in the Parliaments where it has representatives. The Secretary and the Treasu

rer of the Party will then make the necessary operational decisions on the priority goals specified for Central and Eastern Europe: the establishment of a pan-European community of major rivers and waterways; the right to information; campaigns for closing down particularly dangerous nuclear power plants and efficiency of power generation.

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So far, human rights have been insufficiently protected by weak, sectional and poorly coordinated institutions and actions. The General Council instructs its statutory organs and members, and Parliamentarians in particular, to promote the most favourable conditions for undertaking initiatives and strengthening national and supranational institutions for protection of human rights, including the right to ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious self-determination. Only the establishment of a system such as the European Convention of Human Rights in Strasbourg can legitimate individual actions in support of the right to belonging to a certain minority. Likweise, the struggle against the spread of AIDS, especially in the African continent, should be enhanced on all levels.

On the basis of the preliminary budget and of the report of the Treasurer

The General Council notes that only a radical change of the structure of outlays through the establishment of self-financed offices in the various countries can avert that same shortage of financial resources which has in the recent past jeopardized the very existence of the party, and which remains the main obstacle to the realization of the Radical political transnational project;

it instructs its statutory organs to undertake all the necessary measures to settle the problem.

The General Council acknowledges the commitment assumed by the Assembly of Parliamentarians of the Radical Party and decides to follow the instructions of the Treasurer with respect to the preparation of a parliamentary newsletter and the establishment of the relative facilities at the various Parliaments.

Finally, the General Council instructs the statutory bodies to explore the possibility of creating a planning and research unit to assist party activities, in accordance with the instructions of the Treasurer.