during the 3rd congress of the Democrats of the Left...

during the 3^rd congress of the Democrats of the Left, held in Rome between 3-5 February, an Order of the Day was approved adopting and re-launching Hands Off Cain’s appeal for a UN moratorium on executions.   The following is the text of the order: “To the UN General Secretary. “Humanity must progress, and the abolition of the death penalty is not only a necessity for the individual, an ulterior reinforcement of his sphere of inviolability, but an ever increasing historic and universal right, a meeting point between different civilizations. “Hands Off Cain”, this ancient imperative signifies to us that the state cannot dispose of the life of its citizens. When faced with crimes that affect us all, there are many out there who ask for capital punishment to be retained or reintroduced, but in this way the deep sense of justice that gives it life is misplaced. The abolition of the death penalty is becoming a point of view adopted by the international community. On April 24, 2003, the UN Commission on Human Rights established for the seventh consecutive year that the abolition of the death penalty “contributes to the reinforcement of human dignity and to the progress of human rights” and asked this year that retentionist states abolish capital punishment introducing, in the meantime, a moratorium on executions. [The resolution was approved for the eighth consecutive year by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 21, 2004, Ed.] The Tribunals established by the UN Security Council to try crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass graves and other grave acts committed in ex Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the statute of the permanent international tribunal for crimes against humanity all exclude recourse to capital punishment. However, such a punishment is provided for within single states, for crimes infinitely less serious. We ask the United Nations to liberate the international community from this anachronism and to put into place a universal moratorium on executions, with view of complete abolishment of the death penalty.
After the abolition of slavery and the interdiction of torture, the right to not be killed as a result of a judicial measure can be another common denominator, a new and inviolable dimension appertaining to human beings which make of us one single community”.