OLIVIERO TOSCANI’S INTERVENTION AT THE UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

OLIVIERO TOSCANI’S SPEECH AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY AT THE UN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Oral Intervention on Item 17.Promotion and protection of Human Rights:Status of the International Covenants on Human Rights
Delivered by Oliviero Toscani
My name is Oliviero Toscani and I speak on behalf of the Transnational Radical Party. On item 17 and in particular on the question of the Death Penalty
Mr. Chairman,
Unfortunately, the world is still divided in countries and nations, this place is the proof of it.And, strange enough, we do regard ourselves belonging to different races.It is not officially allowed yet to belong to one single race: The Human Race.
If you have got the chance to belong to the unofficial Human race, like many people an myself, you also have the bad chance to encounter major difficulties in the modern world.
One of these difficulty is accepting the fact that in some parts of the world still exists Death Penalty, capital execution, legalised murder.I am not going to bore you by telling you once again all the reasons why it should be eliminated, because by now is clear to everybody that Death Penalty is not a remedy at all. But I want to tell you that Death Penalty unfortunately is not just a problem for those countries who practice it, for those who believe in it, for those countries who it is real, those countries which kill thinking to make justice. The problem is that ,for myself, as many of my peers who belong to the Human race, we do not want to belong to the unhuman Race who has still got executioner, the inhuman Race who are on the side of the legal murderer, We do not want to belong to that inhuman race who legalize the work of an executioner, the inhuman race that kills for justice.
The Death Penalty is a problem for civilized people and society, Death Penalty and civilization are a opposing terms. It is almost ridiculous to still speak about it today in April ,2001; for the real and only Human Race is as ridiculous as speaking about slavery, but for abolishing it took a long time and a lot of violence.Death Penalty has got no reason to belong to any justice system. The Death Penalty belongs in a system based on revenge, discrimination an violence, where the easiest way to get rid of the justice problem it is just by killing .Any killing , kills justice too.
Recently, I had the opportunity , as a photographer, to enter six US prisons, where I photographed 26 inmates on Death Rows.
I was struck by the look in their eyes; they all had the same drama in their expression. The drama of a failed life, the drama of no future.There are things that you only get to see at the movies, and that you hope you only see at the movies. When you realise that they can be also real , you start to panic. The reality of Death Row is one of those things.
The Death rows smell of death, of moribund people, of a morgue of alive people waiting to be executed in cold blood, under the supervision of testimonies who want their sense of revenge satisfied , like in the worst motion picture.
Well, if you belong to the real Human race, you do not want revenge, you want justice, you do not want to be a collaborationist of the inhuman Race who kills thinking to do the right thing; killing can never be right.It is not a question of country, from east to west, north and south, religion, political system, education, tradition, cultural limits, the question is that everybody knows that killing is wrong. We should teach this to our children, how can we do that if we carry on to execute people? it is not anymore a question of who is guilty an who is innocent, because this is a mistake, the problem comes down to the execution in and on itself as well as for those who are guilty: It is Cain . We have to understand the meaning of Hands Off Cain in this respect.
The countries who practice the Death Penalty, should also have the courage to make it public. They should stop hiding behind their violence.
I am very pleased to be here, in such an important and prestigious place, speaking to you, about ending the Death penalty. Because one day , and I hope soon, my grandchildren will be proud of their grandfather, who fought for elimination of the Death Penalty. As I am proud of my grandfather who fought for twenty years against fascism.I hope , one day we will all belong to the one and only Race existing.
The Human race.
Thank you.