Fiorello Cortiana - Italy

regional councillor of Lombardia

ABSTRACT: The Lombardia region officially endorsed the citizens' and parliamentarians' campaign for the abolition of the death penalty by the Year 2000.

("HANDS OFF CAIN", 1 February 1993)

I participated in the Brussels congress, representing the region Lombardia which officially endorsed the citizens' and parliamentarians' campaign for the abolition of the death penalty by the year 2000. Having become founder members and having paid a contribution to make possible the political activities seemed to us as insufficient acts, even formal and hypocritical, compared to the great ambition of actually abolishing the death penalty in the world.

In Brussels, with the contribution of the representatives of the province of Milan, we proposed to activate a political-diplomatic instrument: the adoption of a State where the death penalty is in force or is applied on the part of national institutions that participate in the campaign. The proposal has become an integral part of the conclusive document of the Brussels congress.

The Lombardia region, which decided to adopt one eastern European state and one Western European state, after making the necessary contacts with the U.S. consulate in Milan, found a state with a significant presence of abolitionists: Illinois, where the Illinois coalition against the death penalty is active.

Together with the provincial authorities of Milan - which is adopting the state of Moldavia - we are preparing a protocol of agreement on the adoption to be extended to the other provinces of Lombardia. The protocol binds the Administrations that sign it to define common actions to address to the States, to their international bodies and their representatives, as well as towards the abolitionist associations of those countries.

The specific informative initiatives with the adopted countries will promote exchanges of delegations, that will discuss ethic, legislative and legal themes in relation to the death penalty; press conferences in the adopted countries; the dispatch of letters and petitions of the legislative bodies of those countries; supporting the parliamentarians in the abolitionist institutions and associations of those countries.

These activities, that will need to be part of the institutional planning also of the schools and of the department of education, will represent a commitment which will not end with the single events, but, once activated, will proceed on its own and will generate positive and durable effects.

The province of Milan could assume the task of coordinating the institutions that signed the protocol.