Newly elected Prime Minister Romano Prodi

ITALY. HANDS OFF CAIN IN SUPPORT OF PRODI’S COMMITMENT FOR A MORATORIUM ON EXECUTIONS AT THE NEXT UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

May 23, 2006: Hands Off Cain’s leaders, Sergio D’Elia and Elisabetta Zamparutti, expressed their full appreciation for the statement made by newly elected Prime Minister Romano Prodi in favour of a universal moratorium on executions. Hands Off Cain has been at the forefront of a campaign for a UN based moratorium since 1993. “I believe it is time to resume the Italian efforts for a moratorium on the death penalty which is at the heart of our culture,” stated Prodi in the Chamber of Deputies in reference to a request made yesterday by Sergio D’Elia, Secretary of Hands Off Cain and MP for the Rosa nel Pugno party.
Sergio D’Elia and Elisabetta Zamparutti, responsible for the UN campaign, stated: “We are pleased to note the commitment expressed by Prodi in Parliament to resume the Italian effort for a universal moratorium on capital executions. It is now necessary to act immediately in order to have a pro-moratorium resolution presented and approved by the next UN General Assembly. This would bring to an end the campaign started 13 years ago by Hands Off Cain together with the Transnational Radical Party which has garnered cross party parliamentary support in recent years. 
With the UN moratorium – in view of global abolition – thousands of those condemned to death will be saved: not only the ones we all know and worry about, those on death row in America, but also the unnamed and forgotten of the death penalty, those on death rows in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Cuba and all other authoritarian regimes who die in silence and amongst general indifference.”  (Sources: HOC, 23/05/2006)