ABSTRACT; A detailed account of the results of the general assembly of the transnational radical party, held in Sofia in July 1993.

(Published on the 23 July 1993 issue of the weekly "Pravda i svobodi"/ Rights and freedom/)

"There is a hardly a region in the world where there are no attempts against peace and security, therefore the international community must act firmly, without wavering, at the transnational level, in order to guarantee human rights", reads the general motion of the international assembly of the transnational radical party that closed yesterday in Sofia.

The motion also points out the main objectives that call for a general mobilization of the members and promote major political initiatives and campaigns with non-violent, Gandhian methods.

During the assembly, the party's objectives and projects concerning the environment and the ecological development of central and eastern Europe were also debated, along with those relative to the international law.

Some 500 MPs from over 40 countries also discussed the problem of the organizational renewal of the party and the modification of its statute, the problems relative to the financial resources, that so far come exclusively from the Italian reservoir.

Mr.Marco Pannella (1) was re-elected president of the TRP. Pannella is a member of the European Parliament and a member of the Italian parliament, and the new president-elect of the general council is the young Olivier Dupuis (2), so far the coordinator for central and eastern Europe. Among the 40 new members of the general council are the Bulgarian MPs Konstantin Adzharov and Kolio Paramov.

Among the various speeches held during the four-day meeting there were those of Mr. Ibrahim tatarli, member of the TRP and MP (Movement for rights and freedom) who asked the assembly to support the approval of the complementary protocol to the Convention of the rights and liberties of the individual, which concerns the rights of the minorities, and which was approved in February 1993 by the Assembly of the Council of Europe.

During the meeting the president of the Bulgarian Parliament, Alexander Yordanov, brought a message of greeting to the participants and announced his intentions of joining the radical party. The president Zheliu Zhelev received a delegation headed by the secretary of the Party, Mrs Emma Bonino (3).

Translator's notes

(1) PANNELLA MARCO. Pannella Giacinto, known as Marco. (Teramo 1930). Currently President of the Radical Party's Federal Council, which he is one of the founders of. At twenty national university representative of the Liberal Party, at twenty-two President of the UGI, the union of lay university students, at twenty-three President of the UNURI, national union of Italian university students. At twenty-four he advocates, in the context of the students' movement and of the Liberal party, the foundation of the new radical party, which arises in 1954 following the confluence of prestigious intellectuals and minor democratic political groups. He is active in the party, except for a period (1960-1963) in which he is correspondent for "Il Giorno" in Paris, where he established contacts with the Algerian resistance. Back in Italy, he commits himself to the reconstruction of the radical Party, dissolved by its leadership following the advent of the centre-left. Under his indisputable leadership, the party succeeds in

promoting (and winning) relevant civil rights battles, working for the introduction of divorce, conscientious objection, important reforms of family law, etc, in Italy. He struggles for the abrogation of the Concordat between Church and State. Arrested in Sofia in 1968 as he is demonstrating in defence of Czechoslovakia, which has been invaded by Stalin. He opens the party to the newly-born homosexual organizations (FUORI), promotes the formation of the first environmentalist groups. The new radical party organizes difficult campaigns, proposing several referendums (about twenty throughout the years) for the moralization of the country and of politics, against public funds to the parties, against nuclear plants, etc., but in particular for a deep renewal of the administration of justice. Because of these battles, all carried out with strictly nonviolent methods according to the Gandhian model - but Pannella's Gandhi is neither a mystic nor an ideologue; rather, an intransigent and yet flexible politician - h

e has been through trials which he has for the most part won. As of 1976, year in which he first runs for Parliament, he is always elected at the Chamber of Deputies, twice at the Senate, twice at the European Parliament. Several times candidates and local councillor in Rome, Naples, Trieste, Catania, where he carried out exemplary and demonstrative campaigns and initiatives. Whenever necessary, he has resorted to the weapon of the hunger strike, not only in Italy but also in Europe, in particular during the major campaign against world hunger, for which he mobilized one hundred Nobel laureates and preeminent personalities in the fields of science and culture in order to obtain a radical change in the management of the funds allotted to developing countries. On 30 September 1981 he obtains at the European parliament the passage of a resolution in this sense, and after it several other similar laws in the Italian and Belgian Parliament. In January 1987 he runs for President of the European Parliament, obtaini

ng 61 votes. Currently, as the radical party has pledged to no longer compete with its own lists in national elections, he is striving for the creation of a "transnational" cross-party, in view of a federal development of the United States of Europe and with the objective of promoting civil rights throughout the world.

(2) DUPUIS OLIVIER. (1958). Belgian conscientious objector, surrendered himself to the Belgian justice system and served an 11-month sentence in the prison of Saint Gilles. Worked at the French-speaking edition of "Radical News". Organized and participated in nonviolent and antitotalitarian demonstrations in the countries of Eastern Europe, and was for this reason expelled from Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Currently coordinates the party's activities in Rumania and Hungary. Works at the project on the "New Party".

(3) BONINO EMMA. (Bra 1948). President of the Radical Party, former member of the European Parliament, as of 1976 member of the Italian Parliament. Among the promoters of the CISA (Information Centre on Sterilization and Abortion) and active militant in the campaign against clandestine abortion. She was tried and acquitted in Florence. Participated in the conduction, on a national and international scale, of the campaign on World Hunger. Among the founding members of "Food and Disarmament International", promoted the circulation of the Manifesto of Nobel Laureates.