DEATH PENALTY. RADICALS SEEK PRO MORATORIUM MOBILISATION

October 10, 2007: the Radicals are asking for support in walking the last mile toward UN approval of the Moratorium on the death penalty by mid December. They held an outdoor press conference in Piazza Argentina, Rome,  at one of the many stands used by the Radicals to collect signatures against the death penalty.
Sergio D’Elia, a Rosa Nel Pugno Parliamentarian and Secretary of Hands Off Cain, and Rita Bernadini, Secretary of the Italian Radicals, explained the reason for the national mobilisation in support of the Moratorium.
D’Elia gave credit to the Italian Government for providing a strong impulse to the Moratorium. At the same time he accused the EU bureaucracy and the current Portuguese Presidency of trying till the very end to indefinitely delay the approval of the Moratorium at the UN General Assembly.
He explained how the UN resolution will not be imposed on the 192 member countries, but he is sure that, within a few years, it will become more and more difficult for the member countries that still resort to the death penalty to continue this inhuman practice. The UN Moratorium will morally outlaw the offending countries ‘in practice’.
Rita Bernardini also gave credit to the Italian Government for "having done a good thing." She also reminded how the Berlusconi Government had already given full support to the moratorium. Both D'Elia and Bernardini highlighted the importance of the battle fought by the Radicals for 13 years, without which the death penalty would have probably remained fully legal.
According to Bernardini things would have also gone differently on the Iraq war front when Mr Pannella tried to work on a solution for the exile of Saddam Hussein. No one then wanted to listen to him, but now we know that the dictator was ready to accept Mr Pannella's proposed solution.  (Sources: ANSA, 10/10/2007)