Sergio D'Elia, General Secretary of Hands Off Cain,...

Sergio D'Elia, General Secretary of Hands Off Cain, countered the statement by Amnesty International Italy's President Marco Bertotto, affirming that there is not yet a large enough number of favourable UN member states to ensure the approval of a moratorium resolution at the UN General Assembly.
"Mathematics aren't an opinion, the numbers in favour of a moratorium are there and are the following: there are 191 UN member states; 89 are those which since 1997 have cosponsored a moratorium resolution, 72 of which have already done so at the General Assembly in '99 (when the EU first presented then revoked the resolution and when the situation was less favourable than it is now); to these 89 states we can add the at least six states which have already repeatedly voted at the UN (Commission on human Rights) in favour of a moratorium, which brings us to 95; a further 5 states, based on recent political changes, could vote in favour: which would bring us to 100, an absolute majority of UN member states, a majority which could never be attacked by the 'no' front if we consider that there will be at least 20 undecided states which will abstain from voting.
It must be remembered that in '94, when for the first time the Berlusconi government brought the moratorium resolution to the General Assembly, we lost by eight votes, but this was in '94 when there were 33 more states which retained the death penalty than there are today.
The battles for human rights are also taken up when one is unsure of victory. This one is not a probable defeat, but a sure victory that can only be thrown away through defeatism."