Sanremo Song Festival features Sarajevo tragedy

the song was inspired by Ruggeri’s trip to the city wrecked by the war in the Balkans and still struggling to get back on its feet. The glare of the TV cameras has long since moved on, and Sarajevo risks slipping into oblivion, forgotten even by international organisations.
The anti-death penalty NGO thanks Ruggeri for his active and discreet commitment both to Sarajevo and humanitarian causes.
The singer travelled to the stricken Bosnian capital with the Nazionale Italiana Cantanti, the Italian singers’ football association, to collect funds for the rebuilding of the public library. He is also actively supporting Hands Off Cain’s campaign for an international moratorium on executions.
“Well done to Enrico Ruggeri for deciding to take to one of the world’s most famous song festivals a song that reminds us that human rights are still violated or denied in today’s world, and of the need to fight this abuse,” said HOC Secretary Sergio D’Elia.
“The fight for human rights can be won if it’s not left just to governments or NGOs, but has the direct backing of artists, poets and writers, who are all a powerful medium through which to reach people otherwise unreachable.”
In its campaign for an international moratorium on executions, Hands Off Cain will be flanked by an exceptional partner, the Nazionale Italiana Cantanti, till 2003, when the proposal is expected to be presented at the UN General Assembly in New York.
“We have decided to shift attention from the stadia were football games and concerts are held to the ones that have also become the sites of capital executions, as happened in the recent past in Afghanistan and still happens in China,” said Gianluca Pecchini, general manger of the Nazionale Italiana Cantanti.
“I hope that the singers’ commitment to Hands Off Cain’s campaign encourages the participation of other protagonists of the arts world who share our pledge for a world with more justice and no death penalty.”