HANDS OFF CAIN AT THE UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Hands Off Cain, together with the Transnational Radical Party, will be present at the UN Commission on Human Rights in order to add its weight to the support for the death penalty resolution which will be presented this year by current EU Presidency holders Ireland.
For Hands Off Cain there are two fundamental points to the resolution. The first is the affirmation that the “abolition of the death penalty contributes to enhancement of human dignity and progressive development of human rights”: the second is where it is asked that retentionist countries abolish the death penalty and in the meantime observe a moratorium on capital executions.
On April 13, Hands Off Cain Honorary President and former Illinois Governor George Ryan will intervene in the plenary session to give his support to such a resolution.
On April 14, in partnership with the National Coalition of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and with the support of the EU Commission, a briefing on a “UN moratorium on capital executions” will be held in hall XXV of the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Participants will include George Ryan, Hands Off Cain treasurer Elisabetta Zamparutti, NACDL Secretary John Wesley Hall, Co President of the NACDL International Affairs Committee and Hands Off Cain board member Speedy Rice, Falun Gong spokesperson Erping Zhang and Chinese political dissident Wei Jinsheng.
Increasing the support for the principles affirmed in the death penalty resolution to be approved by the UNHRC could help in convincing the EU in bringing forward an analogous text at the next UN General Assembly.