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JULY 23, 2008PRO MORATORIUM CAMPAIGN PERSPECTIVES AFTER THE SUCCESS AT THE U.N.
With the vote of December 18 at the U.N., it’s as though a contract has been signed, and as with contracts, the difficulties come after signing, when the terms must then be applied. The General Assembly of the U.N., in fact, did not and can not impose the Moratorium on its member States. The real work begins now. It is necessary to double our efforts so that this success doesn’t wear out and fade away. It is necessary to use the Moratorium to finally arrive at abolishing the death penalty completely.
This means that we must see that the U.N. Resolution takes a prominent position worldwide, continuing to monitor the situation country by country, organising political, parliamentary and public events in countries that still maintain the death penalty to get them to adhere to the principles established by the U.N. The Radical Party and Hands Off Cain are already committed to championing the moratorium in various hotspots: Africa, where there are the highest number of de facto abolitionist countries and where there have been many positive steps towards abolition in the last two years; the ex-Soviet Republics of Central Asia; Southeast Asia…
As expressly stated in the Resolution approved in December, the next General Assembly must come back to the subject. The principal players that, until 2007, were prevented from declaring a moratorium at the U.N. are already looking towards the next meeting in New York as either simply procedural or even with a possibility of “reinforcing” the Resolution in its scope towards abolition.
In order to reinforce the position of the U.N., it is sufficient for them to re-approve the Resolution on the Moratorium over the next years as the ultimate road leading to the fore-drawn conclusion of the abolition of the death penalty. But there is a way that the Resolution can truly be reinforced politically: the abolition not of the death penalty but of State Secrecy regarding the death penalty. The new resolution should call for all retentionist States to make available to the Secretary General and the public all information concerning the death penalty and executions. This addition should also provide for a Special Envoy of the Secretary General, who has the responsibility of monitoring the situation, but also of helping to move along the process of individual countries in satisfying the indications of the Moratorium of the U.N. and maintaining a high degree of transparency regarding capital punishment.
Clearly, in these countries, the definitive solution of the problem, more than the abolition of the death penalty, regards Democracy, Rule of Law, the promotion and respect of political and civil liberties.