Spain supports HOC’s moratorium campaign
March 14, 2002: in one of Madrid’s largest Internet Cafes pop stars and artists from the Spanish entertainment and cultural scenes turned up to support Hands Off Cain’s online campaign for a worldwide moratorium on executions.
at the launch of HOC’s campaign in Madrid, popstars, artists, writers and a former death row inmate signed the appeal to the Secretary General of the United Nations for a resolution by the UN General Assembly in favour of a moratorium on executions.
The celebrities present also asked the Spanish government, currently the term president of the European Union, to reinforce the support for this same resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission, which is due to kick off its annual session on March 18.
Writer Fernando Savater, who chaired the launch of HOC’s online campaign at Madrid’s BBIGG Internet cafe, said the death penalty is a prehistoric means of confronting criminality.
Savater said abolishing capital punishment is a goal that can be reached in small steps, and HOC’s moratorium campaign is a fundamental stepping-stone.
Juan Manuel Cabrera, the director of the Spanish Foreign Ministry’s Human Rights Office, said in a statement read by Savater, that Spain is fully committed to increasing the number of sponsor countries for the moratorium resolution at the UNCHR.
MEP Emma Bonino outlined the progress of HOC’s moratorium campaign since its launch in Italy in 1993, its approval by the UNCHR in 1997, and the setback it suffered at the General Assembly in 1999, when the resolution was tabled, then withdrawn by the EU.
Bonino said it is essential that EU countries are both united and determined in their fight to establish a worldwide moratorium on executions for the resolution to reach the UN’s General Assembly again.
The former EU commissioner pointed out the contradictory stance of countries like the US and China that approved the exclusion of capital punishment from the statutes of international bodies set up to try grave crimes like genocide but maintain it in their penal codes for infinitely less serious crimes.
A simple gesture like signing HOC’s online appeal can be the first step in resolving such contradictions, Bonino said. Tens of thousands of people have already signed the appeal, published by Nexta.com, and HOC’s new Spanish partner Ya.com, which sponsored the Madrid launch along with Elmundo.es, MTV.es, and the EU.
Sergio D’Elia, HOC Secretary, said he was asking the Spanish government to prompt the EU to win the battle it had shirked in at UNGA in 1999.
Of 196 countries in the international community, 127 have abolished the death penalty or do not apply it, whereas only 69 continue to carry out executions. However, the annual number of executions is paradoxically increasing, D’Elia said.
In 2001, almost 4,500 executions were recorded worldwide, with China topping the executioners’ list with 3,500. The battle against the death penalty is also, D’Elia said, a battle for democracy.
Chart-topping Italian singer Enrico Ruggeri, representing the Nazionale Italiana Cantanti, one of the sponsors, described how a group of well-known and less well-known singers had got together a football team to set up games with such adversaries as Formula 1 pilots for charity.
“We were lucky to be born in that part of the world where people are more likely to die from indigestion than from hunger, and we wanted to use our fame and the money we made thanks to it to help others,” Ruggeri said.
Hands Off Cain’s moratorium campaign is a worthy cause for the Nazionale Cantanti, Ruggeri said, urging Spanish singers to set up a similar team.
HOC’s anti-death penalty campaign is a fine way of putting the globalization brought about by Internet to good use, according to sponsor Ya.com, one of the major Spanish websites, that is hosting the campaign banner to gather signature’s for the appeal.
BBIGG Internet Cafe undertook to provide access to the online appeal to its clients all over Spain.
Progressive Socialist MP for the Comunidad de Madrid, Cristina Almeida, declared her support for HOC’s campaign and reminded the audience, and viewers connected to Ya.com’s live transmission of Safiya Hussaini, who faces death by stoning for having a child out of wedlock.
In an emotionally-charged voice, Joaquin Martinez, the Spanish national condemned to death in the US last year, then found innocent, thanked everyone for their commitment to abolish the death penalty.
Belen, of the all female funky-soul group Greta y los Garbo, drew a parallel between cannibalism and the death penalty. Capital punishment will be eradicated in the same way cannibalism has been wiped out, she said.
Journalist Mercedes Mila gave her full support to the moratorium campaign, and singer Cristina del Valle said Internet was an extraordinary medium to raise public awareness about the death penalty.
Musician Benito Zambrano urged the Spanish government to carry on the fight against the death penalty with determination, and one of Spain’s best-loved chefs, Abraham Garcia emphasized the synergy between Italy and Spain in upholding human rights.
The celebrities present also asked the Spanish government, currently the term president of the European Union, to reinforce the support for this same resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission, which is due to kick off its annual session on March 18.
Writer Fernando Savater, who chaired the launch of HOC’s online campaign at Madrid’s BBIGG Internet cafe, said the death penalty is a prehistoric means of confronting criminality.
Savater said abolishing capital punishment is a goal that can be reached in small steps, and HOC’s moratorium campaign is a fundamental stepping-stone.
Juan Manuel Cabrera, the director of the Spanish Foreign Ministry’s Human Rights Office, said in a statement read by Savater, that Spain is fully committed to increasing the number of sponsor countries for the moratorium resolution at the UNCHR.
MEP Emma Bonino outlined the progress of HOC’s moratorium campaign since its launch in Italy in 1993, its approval by the UNCHR in 1997, and the setback it suffered at the General Assembly in 1999, when the resolution was tabled, then withdrawn by the EU.
Bonino said it is essential that EU countries are both united and determined in their fight to establish a worldwide moratorium on executions for the resolution to reach the UN’s General Assembly again.
The former EU commissioner pointed out the contradictory stance of countries like the US and China that approved the exclusion of capital punishment from the statutes of international bodies set up to try grave crimes like genocide but maintain it in their penal codes for infinitely less serious crimes.
A simple gesture like signing HOC’s online appeal can be the first step in resolving such contradictions, Bonino said. Tens of thousands of people have already signed the appeal, published by Nexta.com, and HOC’s new Spanish partner Ya.com, which sponsored the Madrid launch along with Elmundo.es, MTV.es, and the EU.
Sergio D’Elia, HOC Secretary, said he was asking the Spanish government to prompt the EU to win the battle it had shirked in at UNGA in 1999.
Of 196 countries in the international community, 127 have abolished the death penalty or do not apply it, whereas only 69 continue to carry out executions. However, the annual number of executions is paradoxically increasing, D’Elia said.
In 2001, almost 4,500 executions were recorded worldwide, with China topping the executioners’ list with 3,500. The battle against the death penalty is also, D’Elia said, a battle for democracy.
Chart-topping Italian singer Enrico Ruggeri, representing the Nazionale Italiana Cantanti, one of the sponsors, described how a group of well-known and less well-known singers had got together a football team to set up games with such adversaries as Formula 1 pilots for charity.
“We were lucky to be born in that part of the world where people are more likely to die from indigestion than from hunger, and we wanted to use our fame and the money we made thanks to it to help others,” Ruggeri said.
Hands Off Cain’s moratorium campaign is a worthy cause for the Nazionale Cantanti, Ruggeri said, urging Spanish singers to set up a similar team.
HOC’s anti-death penalty campaign is a fine way of putting the globalization brought about by Internet to good use, according to sponsor Ya.com, one of the major Spanish websites, that is hosting the campaign banner to gather signature’s for the appeal.
BBIGG Internet Cafe undertook to provide access to the online appeal to its clients all over Spain.
Progressive Socialist MP for the Comunidad de Madrid, Cristina Almeida, declared her support for HOC’s campaign and reminded the audience, and viewers connected to Ya.com’s live transmission of Safiya Hussaini, who faces death by stoning for having a child out of wedlock.
In an emotionally-charged voice, Joaquin Martinez, the Spanish national condemned to death in the US last year, then found innocent, thanked everyone for their commitment to abolish the death penalty.
Belen, of the all female funky-soul group Greta y los Garbo, drew a parallel between cannibalism and the death penalty. Capital punishment will be eradicated in the same way cannibalism has been wiped out, she said.
Journalist Mercedes Mila gave her full support to the moratorium campaign, and singer Cristina del Valle said Internet was an extraordinary medium to raise public awareness about the death penalty.
Musician Benito Zambrano urged the Spanish government to carry on the fight against the death penalty with determination, and one of Spain’s best-loved chefs, Abraham Garcia emphasized the synergy between Italy and Spain in upholding human rights.
— SOURCES
- Source: Hands Off Cain, 14/03/2002