HOC PRO MORATORIUM CAMPAIGN OUTLOOK

The approval, in December of 2007, of the Resolution for a Universal Moratorium on Capital Executions by the General Assembly of the United Nations, was a fundamental step, not only in the struggle against the death penalty, but also for the affirmation of the State of Law as well as for rights historically guaranteed by the State but not respected.

Since then, the concrete impact of the U.N. Resolution, which saw an increased level of adherence in 2008 and again in 2010, with numerous Nations, even those which until recently seemed inaccessible, showing signs of positive growth in terms of the death penalty as is documented in the Hands Off Cain's 2011 Report.

The outlook on abolition is even more favorable when considering the enormous social and political changes in the Arab world and beyond. The end of the myth of invincibility of dictators entrenched in power for decades, may bring about humanitarian and democratic reforms that will bring an end to the systems and practices of the death penalty of the past.

In Morocco, the new Constitution approved by a popular referendum on 1 July, posits, for the first time, the right to life as being fundamental. In Tunisia, on 1 February 2011, the united national interim government ratified immensely important international treaties including the Statute of Rome on the institution of the International Court of Justice [ratified on 24 June 2011] as well as two additional protocols to the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights, including that relative to the death penalty. Meanwhile, de facto moratoriums continue in Jordan (since 2006) and Lebanon (since 2004).

But perhaps the real proof of a regime change in the Arab world rests with Egypt, the Nation that at the United Nations was always in the frontline against the Pro-Moratorium Resolution. If the interim Egyptian government can guarantee the heads of the former state, starting with ex-President Hosni Mubarak, fundamental human rights, including a fair and open trial that excludes the death penalty, it will be the most evident departure from the ways of the past.

Last December, besides Jordan and Lebanon, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritania and Oman also abstained from voting on the Resolution for a Moratorium at the U.N. General Assembly. While Algeria, voted in favor and also cosponsored the text, in full accord with its legal moratorium on executions in the Country that has been in place since 1993. The vast majority which approved the last U.N. Resolution, was largely a result of changes in the Arab world and further confirms that the whole world is decisively heading towards the elimination of the bogus and archaic system of the death penalty.

However, to truly end the aberrant and contradictory principle which seeks to defend life by inflicting death, the Nations that supported the moratorium at the U.N. must concretely respect it in all circumstances.

Hands Off Cain will do its part with a project that will bring the Association, over the next two years, to work in 17 countries in North Africa, the Middle East and East and South-East Asia where, in recent years, political events, legislative reforms and other positive factors suggest the possibility of abolishing the death penalty or at least limiting its use with de facto moratoriums and collective commutations of death sentences. In many of these Nations, the top priority is to overcome State Secrecy regarding the death penalty, which is often a direct cause of a greater number of death sentences and executions.

The work of the association will take place on two distinct but complementary levels: the first, geared towards informing the public and sensitizing it to the necessity to abolish the death penalty, regards those working in the information and social communications sectors of target Nations; the second, more directly regards institutions, particularly at the Governmental and Parliamentary level, in seeking to move them towards adherence to norms established by the United Nations and the European Union.

Because of difficulties regarding the cost of a massive multimedia campaign against the death penalty Nation by Nation organized by abolitionist organizations themselves, Hands Off Cain intends, through two instructional seminars organized in collaboration with Oliviero Toscani and the RAI Social Action Department, to share and provide local and regional operators in the information and communications sectors with the instruments and basic knowledge, examples and techniques of communications to enable them to realize their own campaigns, honed to their particular contexts, bringing light to the realities of the death penalty while informing public opinion on the reasons for its abolition. A seminar, geared towards the Countries of North Africa and the Middle East will take place in Tunisi and will be carried out in partnership with the Arab Institute for Human Rights; the other will be held in Tokyo and will be developed in partnership with the Anti Death Penalty Asia Network, and will include countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

At the same time, Hands Off Cain will organize missions in the 17 target countries of the project to encourage them to implement the United Nations' request of a moratorium on executions with a view to the abolition of the death penalty, and gain new support for the Resolutions against the death penalty that are already on the agenda of the forthcoming sessions (2012 and 2014) of the UN General Assembly.

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