HOC delegation at the Justice Commission

MALI: HANDS OFF CAIN MISSION - HEARING IN PARLIAMENT AND VISIT TO BAMAKO WOMEN'S PRISON

November 11, 2010: the Hands Off Cain delegation in Mali (comprising Marco Pannella, Elisabetta Zamparutti and Matteo Angioli) participated in a hearing held by the Justice Commission of the Mali National Assembly. Kassoum Tapo, the first person to sign a proposed law for the abolition of the death penalty was present. He explained how "the parliamentarians do not have the strength to assume the political responsibility of the decision.” “Instead of voting according to their consciences, the parliamentarians continue to take time speaking of wanting to compare with the actual electorate. But the people have fear of the Imams' reactions and this fear is echoed in their political representatives.” To overcome these fears, parliamentarian Diannessy Brahima proposed a seminar specifically held for parliamentarians because they can better understand the evolution of the debate on the international level and the positions of the Muslim abolitionists. The participants at the hearing considered the development of a sub-regional conference to be held next year in Bamako for African countries with a Muslim majority an important contribution to the debate.
This was followed by a meeting with the Secretary General of the National Assembly and representatives of the European Union Commission in Bamako.
In the afternoon the delegation made a visit to Bamako Women's Prison. It holds 116 women, of whom only 43 have been definitively sentenced to death. The extremely dilapidated structure is composed of 5 blocks, situated one after the other in the shape of a pentagon. Each block is itself composed of 5 cells which hold from 3 to 10 prisoners. The women keep their children in the cell until they reach the age of four. Life takes place in a central courtyard, the cells open at six in the morning and are closed at six at night. The 17 children that live in these conditions can leave the central structure to access a second courtyard, which is circled by walls, where there is a small building. Even this building is in an extremely dilapidated condition, and it functions as an asylum with a person that attends to the children. A final structure houses the laboratories that seem more of facade than real centres of activities.
The Radicals mission in Mali finishes today, Friday November 12, with a meeting with the President of the Republic of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré.
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 the creation of missions in 8 African countries for the first year and the holding of regional conferences in the second year. (Sources: HOC, 12/11/2010)