MALI: THE HANDS OFF CAIN MISSION'S FIRST MEETINGS FOR ABOLITION AND THE UN MORATORIUM

November 10, 2010: the Hands Off Cain and Radical Party delegation in Mali, comprising Marco Pannella, Elisabetta Zamparutti and Matteo Angioli, had a series of meetings concerning one of the objectives of the four day mission- accelerating the legislative process towards the abolition of the death penalty in Mali.
The Radicals first met the President of the Mali Order of Lawyers, Maiga Seydou Ibrahim, and then various members of the Platform of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, including executive secretary of the People's Movement for Education on Human Rights Mahamari Mohamed El Moktar and the vice president of the National Commission of Human Rights Kané Nana Sano.
Openly abolitionist, the president of the Order of Lawyers explained the internal difficulty of seeing to completion the parliamentary procedures of the legal project for the definitive abolition of capital punishment, presented by the Government in October 2007. The difficulties are tied to aggression by certain Muslim exponents and their complaints prevented the parliament approving the procedure. The Parliamentary Commission on Human Rights didn't have the strength to give a positive opinion on limiting itself to record the imans' 10 reasons of aversion and the abolitionists' 10 reasons in favour.
“It concerns Mali giving value to supporting international measures, from the co-sponsorisation of the pro moratorium UN Resolution, also confirmed this year, to adhesion to the statute of the International Court of Justice not to use the death penalty,” Radical parliamentarian Elisabetta Zamparutti said. The same evaluation was given by the Platform for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which consists of 55 non governmental organisations in Mali.
Today, the Radical delegation will hold meetings with the highest representatives of Mali- the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Justice Minister. Besides the abolition of the death penalty in Mali, the other objective of the mission is to gain the African country's support for two important Resolutions in discussion at the United Nations- the Universal Moratorium on capital punishment and the banning of female genital mutilation.
The mission in Mali is part of Hands Off Cain's “Africa Project” for the realisation of the UN resolution for the moratorium on executions and the abolition of the death penalty in Africa. The two year project, financed in part by the European Union, foresees missions in 8 African countries for the first year and the holding of regional conferences in the second year. (Sources: HOC, 10/11/2010)