FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Conference - Re: Appeal to the United Nations for a Moratorium on Executions

When: November 19th, 1998 at 3:00 p.m.

Where: UNCA Club room

3rd floor - UN Secretariat Building

On November 19th 1998, a delegation of the international league of citizens and parliaments Hands off Cain will deliver to the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, an appeal for a worldwide moratorium on executions.

The appeal, undersigned by over hundred Nobel Prizes, prominent international personalities and congressmen, asks the United Nations General Assembly to lead the International Community away from the intolerable anachronism of the death penalty by establishing in 1999 a universal moratorium on executions with a view to total abolition.

The press conference preceding the meeting with the Secretary-General's office will be attended by:

-Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking and 1998 Peace Nobel Prize Candidate;

-Tim Robbins, Actor; Director of the movie Dead Man Walking

-Sergio D'Elia, Secretary of Hands off Cain

-Prof. William Schabas, Professor of Law at the University of Montreal

Interviews will be granted to the journalists attending the event.

Sister Helen Prejean is the first signatory of the appeal undersigned by hundreds of people including many Nobel Prizes (among them: His Holiness the Dalai Lama; Archbishop Desdmond Tutu; Betty Williams; Oscar Arias Sanchez; Nadine Gordimer; Jose Saramago; Rigoberta Menchu') and prominent international personalities like Isabel Allende, Elena Bonner Sacharova, Noam Chomsky and many others.

The delivery of the appeal to Mr. Annan's office will be followed on November 23rd, 1998 by a Conference at the Italian Institute of Culture.

N.B. All journalists without a valid accreditation with the UN must request a daily pass at the Accreditation Unit on the 2nd floor, room 250 of the UN Secretariat Building (use the visitor entrance on 46th and 1st) bringing a letter from the Editor requesting to attend the press conference and a valid ID.

For any further information please contact Hands off Cain office at 212-813-1334 or at 917-776-4168.