Konstantin Kedrov - Russia

Izveztija, 16 December

ABSTRACT: Justice can find its fulfilment on the living, not on the dead. "...There have been many speakers at the congress, and with each of them other speakers entered the room: Jesus Christ, Buddha, Gandhi, Turgenev, Victor Hugo, Cechov, Thomas Mann...and they all said: Do not kill!"

("HANDS OFF CAIN", 1 February 1994)

Bernardo Bertolucci is on the electric chair.

Don't worry, the Oscar winning director has not committed a crime and he is not sentenced to death. The electric chair was on display at the seat of the European Parliament to demonstrate against the barbarianism of the 21st century. The journalists liked the idea so much that they interviewed the congress participants as they were sitting in the electric chair.

I tried it too. I confess one prefers not to remember what it feels like to be tied hand and feet: once again one convinces oneself that a similar punishment decided by man should not exist. I remember King Louis of France's famous guillotine. The magnanimous king wanted to alleviate the suffering of the condemned by changing the blade; he took a ruler and changed the inclination. It was not to be straight, but with an inclination of 43 degrees so as to enhance the strength of the blow and make death more immediate. Did the poor king know that he would have tried out his invention on his own neck?

The jurists at the congress paid attention to the fact that there is no relation between the death penalty and the principle of the "subject of the law". Justice can find its fulfilment on the living, not on the dead. If one of the subjects of the law disappears, we can no longer talk about justice, but of summary justice and revenge, concepts that once again are incompatible with that of law. A central argument advanced by all delegations was that of the incompatibility of the death penalty with the Charter of human rights. Discussions on the various laws are void of any meaning unless the governments guarantee that fundamental right to life. The congress participants defined the governments' right to issue death sentences as their monopoly on the crime. But if citizens are not allowed to carry out personal revenge, why should this right be granted to the state?

There have been many speakers at the congress, and with them other speakers participated in the congress: Jesus Christ, Buddha, Gandhi, Turgenev, Victor Hugo, Cechov, Thomas Mann...and they all said, Do not kill! in nine languages, including Russian.

The transnational party pursues two important objectives: making the international tribunal effective and abolishing the death penalty by the year 2000. This last objective may seem unattainable, but in fact even the idea of the tribunal which is now operative in the Hague had initially seemed a pure deception.