Hands Off Cain held an international two-day conference...

Hands Off Cain held an international two-day conference in Rome on February 13-14, concurrent with the meeting of HOC's board of directors. The conference - under the patronage of the European Union - concluded with the approval of a resolution that commits the association to re-launch the campaign for the presentation of a pro-moratorium resolution at the UN General Assembly.
The conference resolution calls for initiatives aimed mainly at the institutions of the European Union (Parliament, Council and Commission) and its member states. The initiatives would begin with Ireland and The Netherlands - that are respectively the EU's term presidents for the first and second semesters of 2004 - and would include missions to other European capitals.
The Rome Conference focused on HOC's proposed campaign for a moratorium with a view to abolition in Africa, that was enthusiastically received by all participants, in particular representatives of African states.
HOC Secretary Sergio D'Elia and Treasurer Elisabetta Zamparutti were entrusted with the assessment of the political and financial feasibility of this project.
In the meantime, HOC's executives and the participants of the Rome conference agreed to work towards the presentation of a pro-moratorium proposal in institutional forums, beginning with the next scheduled meetings in Africa of the ACP - EU Parliamentary Assembly.
The Board of Directors also pledged to support campaigns of the Transnational Radical Party (led by conference participants Marco Pannella MEP and Emma Bonino MEP) "For a World Organization of Democracies and Democracy" and for the ratification of the statute of the International Criminal Court.
The Rome Conference was attended by government and parliament representatives from African countries in which the democratisation process underway has brought about or signalled significant steps towards the abolition of the death penalty.
Leonard She Okitundu, roving Ambassador for the DRC, Kenya's Deputy Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Robinson Njeru Githae, Mali's Demba Traore MP and Member of the Justice Commission, Ghana's Deputy Minister for Justice Gloria Akuffo, Senegal's Minister for Human Rights Mame Bassine Niang, Nigerian MPs Abdul Oroh and Jumoke Okoya Thomas, Zambian MP Norman Kapungwe Chibamba, and Sierra Leone's Ambassador to the UN in New York Allieu I. Kanu all expressed their country's commitment to the worldwide moratorium on executions.
Oliviero Toscani, author of the controversial "We, on death row" campaign featuring pictures of US death row inmates and HOC Board Member, declared himself willing to undertake a similar project featuring inmates in African death rows.
human rights violations in these two countries were denounced at the Rome Conference by Erping Zhang, international spokesperson for the spiritual movement Falun Gong and Mehrafrouz Peykarnegar and Ali Ghaderi, representatives of the Iranian resistance in exile.