 |
 |
|
|
TRANSFax #13
Information
bulletin on the campaigns
of the Transnational Radical Party
Issue #13 June 16th, 1997
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
* Published in Italian, French, Russian, and Spanish.
Dear friends,
The European Parliament's resolution in support of the universal
moratorium of capital executions herewith enclosed represents,
after the document was adopted by the last session of the
Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, another achievement by TRP.
It is a very important step towards the adoption, by the United
Nations, of a moratorium of capital executions for which,
together with "Hands off Cain," we have struggled in
the last four years.
But a "piece of paper" will not be enough if it is not
supported by that public mobilization and organization that today
we call the Transnational Radical Party.
In this regard we want our readers to know that we have started a
profound restructuring of the means and financial resources that
we have used in the past years. As regards Eastern Europe, where
we have been present with offices and officials since the
Budapest Congress of 1989, and where TRP decided to operate with
a view of the transition towards democracy and European
Federalism, tremendous changes have shaken the region. New
politicians and new issues have risen, such as the process of the
"European" integration of the "Easterners,"
issues with dozens of contradictions and negative past attitudes
by the EU emblematic in this way is the case of Albania. In this
context the role of TRP had to be different.
The limited financial resources at our disposal do not allow us a
structured presence in that region. Since the Sofia Congress in
1993, TRP has chosen to become the party for the reform of the UN,
and, in what regards to this choice, we have reorganized our
global as well as regional initiatives.
Our restructuring is almost done; we have closed some of our
offices in Central and Eastern Europe, with the exceptions of
Moscow, and Budapest, that now, more than in the past, will be
the coordinators of actions and people (a virtual force due to
the absence of members), with Brussels, Rome and New York as
their point of reference.
The "Light Party" model that we are trying to apply
wants to increase the use of communication technologies. This
same bulletin, conceived as a via-fax newsletter, now has more e-mail
addresses in its directory than fax numbers. Moreover, a virtual
TRP office can be contacted through the internet ( http://www.agora.stm.it/pr ), allowing us to be present in parts of
the world simply unthinkable some months ago.
For the effective success of this new project we need the help of
the readers of this bulletin. We need interaction and feedback,
we need your opinion, comment, commitment for a campaign,
contribution and membership; we need people from Tokyo to Moscow,
from Sidney to New Delhi for the success of this new way of
political action rooted in international law and nonviolence.
Good Work!
UNIVERSAL
ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ASKS THE COUNCIL AND THE
MEMBER STATES TO PROMOTE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A MORATORIUM AND TO
MUSTER SUPPORT FOR ABOLITION IN THE NEW TREATY WITHIN THE UNITED
NATIONS.
Strasbourg, June 12, 1997.
The European Parliament has adopted, by a majority vote, an
urgent resolution on the abolition of the death penalty as a
result of the proposals presented by TRP Secretary Olivier DUPUIS
(ARE), Adelaide AGLIETTA (Greens), Andre SOULIER (PPE), and
Alexandros ALAVANOS (GUE), thereby confirming the work being done
in favor of a universal abolition of the death penalty.
The European Parliament has advanced a series of specific
proposals and requests, there among them:
- the presentation, on behalf of the EU, to the General Assembly
of the United Nations, of a resolution for the introduction of a
universal moratorium of capital punishments;
- the incorporation, in the new Treaty of the Union, of an
article for the prohibition of the death penalty,
- the signing and ratification, by candidates for membership in
the European Council, of optional protocol No. 2 of the
International Pact which is relative to civil and political
rights;
- the consideration of the question of the abolition of the death
penalty in the negotiation of all accords of partnership and
cooperation;
- the abolition of the death penalty by all of the members of the
ACP-UE convention;
Statement by Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the
Transnational Radical Party and Deputy to the European Parliament:
"Before the indifference to the death penalty and its
ever growing application in many countries, beginning with the
People's Republic of China and the United States, it is extremely
important that the abolitionist nations assume the initiative.
The resolution of the European Parliament invites the European
Union to dedicate itself with resolve to this question, and
making itself a particular promoter of an initiative within the
United Nations. An initiative that will allow us to introduce,
one hundred years after the abolition of slavery, the universal
abolition of the death penalty within international law."
Follows
the text approved by the EP.
EP/Death penalty
abolition: resolution
(a)B4-0468, 0487, 0497, 0513 and 0542/97
Resolution on the abolition of the death penalty
The European Parliament,
- having regard to its previous resolutions on the abolition of
the death penalty,
- having regard to Resolution 1047 of 1996 and Recommendation
1302 of 1996 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe on the abolition of the death penalty in Europe,
- having regard to the resolutions on the abolition of the death
penalty adopted by the ACP-EU Joint Assembly on 26 September 1996
and 20 March 1997,
- having regard to the latest UN report on the death penalty (E/CN.15/1996/19),
- having regard to the resolution adopted by the 53rd session of
the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on the death penalty
(E/CN.4/1997/L.20),
A. having regard to the rapid increase in the use of the death
penalty throughout the world,
B. welcoming the recent complete abolition of the death penalty
in 1995 and 1996 in Italy, Spain, Belgium, Moldova and Macedonia,
C. welcoming the fact that Russia has signed the Sixth Protocol
to the European Convention on Human Rights which makes abolition
of the death penalty a legal obligation, but regretting that the
Russian Duma has rejected a bill on a moratorium on executions,
D. welcoming the fact that, over the last two years,
international organizations such as the Council of Europe, the
Latin American Parliament and the ACP-EU Joint Assembly have
adopted resolutions in favour of a universal moratorium on
executions,
E. seriously concerned by recent reports that in some member
states of the Council of Europe executions are still taking place,
notably in Ukraine, where 167 executions took place in 1996,
F. whereas 28 members of the Council of Europe have abolished the
death penalty for all crimes,
G. whereas, of the countries which are members of the Council of
Europe, Cyprus, Malta and the UK have not abolished the death
penalty for exceptional crimes and Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania and Turkey are de facto abolitionist, but still
retain the death penalty on their statute books,
H. whereas seven members of the Council of Europe have signed,
but not yet ratified, the Sixth Protocol to the European
Convention on Human Rights and nine member countries have not yet
signed it,
I. regretting that numerous members of the Council of Europe have
not yet signed the second optional Protocol to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
J. deploring the widespread use of the death penalty in the
People's Republic of China,
K. deploring the growing use of the death penalty in the majority
of federal states in the USA,
L. whereas Italy has tabled a proposal to the IGC to ban the
death penalty in the new EU Treaty,
1. Reaffirms its strong opposition to use of the death penalty
anywhere in the world and calls on all countries to adopt a
moratorium on executions and to abolish the death penalty;
2. Calls on the Intergovernmental Conference to introduce a ban
on the death penalty in the new Treaty on European Union;
3. Calls on those European states that retain the death penalty,
without having recourse to it, to abolish it definitively for all
crime as rapidly as possible;
4. Requests Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova
and the Russian Federation to ratify the Sixth Protocol to the
European Convention on Human Rights and requests Albania,
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine and
the United Kingdom to sign it;
5. Urges the Russian Federation and Ukraine to honor their
commitments to the Council of Europe and immediately to adopt a
moratorium and abolish the death penalty;
6. Proposes that candidate countries for accession to the Council
of Europe should undertake to sign and ratify the second optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights as a condition of membership;
7. Calls on those signatories to the ACP-EU Convention that have
not already done so to abolish the death penalty as rapidly as
possible;
8. Considers that the abolition of the death penalty must be
taken into account in all negotiations concerning partnership and
cooperation agreements;
9. Calls on the Commission to pay special attention to the death
penalty in its annual reports on human rights clauses in
agreements between the EU and third countries;
10. Calls on the Council, the Member States and the Commission,
acting within its remit, to table at the UN General Assembly a
resolution on the introduction of a universal moratorium on
executions;
11. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the
Commission, the Council, the parliaments of the Member States of
the EU, the parliaments and governments of the member countries
of the Council of Europe, the ACP countries, Belarus, Georgia,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the People's Republic of
China and the Unites States, the Secretary-General of the Council
of Europe and the President of its Parliamentary Assembly, and
the Secretary-General of the UN and the President of its General
Assembly.
INTERNATIONAL
CRIMINAL COURT
Paris:
NPWJ's First Conference
On June 19-20 the first of several conferences will take place in
Paris on the establishment of the International Criminal Court.
This, the first conference organized by No Peace Without Justice,
which is federated to the Transnational Radical Party, has as its
objective to reinforce and support the creation of the first
segment of international justice, which would establish the
International Criminal Court. This campaign should conclude
itself after a series of international appointments in South
America, North America, Africa, and Asia, with the convocation in
Rome, in the spring of 1998, of a Plenipotentiary Conference for
the establishment of the International Criminal Court. It is a
long journey, of which the Paris meeting is only the first of
many important steps. The work schedule follows.
1997/1998 International Campaign
- for the establishment of an International Criminal
Court
- and support of the activity of the ad hoc tribunal for former
Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
INAUGURAL
CONFERENCE - PARIS,
JUNE 19-20 , 1997
Senate, Palais du Luxembourg
Presidency: Ms. Emma BONINO,
European Commissioner, Mr. Robert Badinter, Senator with the
contribution of the "Open Society Institute".
a) Thursday June 19th
* Opening Session
- Ms. Emma Bonino, European Commissioner
- Mr. Robert Badinter, Senator
* Round Table: "From Nuremburg and the ad hoc Tribunals to
the International Criminal Court"
Chairman Mr. Michael Rocard, member of the European Parliament,
former Prime Minister ( France);
* Keynote Speakers
- Mr. Cherif Bassiouni, Professor of International Law, President
of the "International Human Rights Law Institute De Paul
University", Vice-Chairman of the UN Preparatory Committee
for the establishment of an ICC;
- Mr. Antonio Cassese, President of the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia;
- Mr. Giovanni Conso, former Minister of Justice;
- Mr. Benjamin Ferencz, former Nuremberg Prosecutor, NGO
Coalition for an ICC;
- Mr. Larry Kama, President of the Rwanda ad hoc Tribunal
- Mr. William Schabas, Professor of Law, University of Quebec.
* Round Table: "Towards the convening of the 1998 Diplomatic
Conference for the establishment of an International Criminal
Court"
Chairman: Mr. Gijs de Vries, President of the Group of the
European Liberal, Democratic and Reform Party at the European
Parliament
Keynote Speakers
- Mr. Adriaan Bos, Chairman of the UN Preparatory Committee on
the establishment of the International Criminal Court;
- Mr. Christofer Hall, Legal Advisor, Amnesty International;
- Mr. Mauro Politi, Professor of International Law, Legal Advisor
to the Permanent mission of Italy to The United Nations;
- Mr. John Shattuk, US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy,
Human Rights and Labour;
b) Friday June 20th
* Round Table: "A worldwide campaign for the establishment
of the International Criminal Court"
Chairman: Mr. Gianfranco Dell'Alba, Memver of the European
Parliament;
Keynote Speakers
- Ms Louise Arbour, Chief Prosecutor, international Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda;
- Mr. William Bourdon, Secretary General, Federation
International des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme;
- Mr. Marino Busdachin, Secretary General, No Peace Without
Justice;
- Ms. Herta Daubler Gmelin, Member of the German Parliament
- Mr. Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical
Party and Member of the European Parliament;
- Ms. Daniela Napoli, Chief of the Human Rights and
Democratization Unit of the European Commission;
- Mr. Thomas Warrick, NGO Coalition for International Justice.
Closing Session: "Adoption of an International Appeal for
the establishment of the International Criminal Court.
Chairman: Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Former UN Secretary General.
Rapporteurs:
- Mr. Robert Badinter, Senator;
- Ms. Emma Bonino, European Commissioner
ANTIPROHIBITIONISM
ON DRUGS
CORA DEMONSTRATION IN BRUSSELS
In these days the Belgian Parliament is discussing the final
adoption of a report on drugs. It is a prohibitionist document
that, paradoxically, perfectly describes the failure of
prohibitionist policies not only in Belgium but also throughout
the world.
CORA Belgique has organized a series of consecutive
demonstrations before the offices of the Belgian political
parties that will be held every Monday morning in order to
stimulate public opinion and the opinion of Parliamentarians
concerning the contradictions of the document in discussion. CORA
has also elaborated a counter-report, which was presented to the
media fifteen days ago during a press conference in the
Parliament together with the Ecolo/Agalev organization. The
participants in the conference included CORA Secretary Eric
Picard, Liberal Senator Paul Boel, Ecologist Deputy Franz Lozie,
and Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party Olivier Dupuis.
For more information on the ANTIPROHIBITIONIST FAX contact: Tel:
+32-2-2304121 Fax: +32-2-2303670 - E-Mail: cora.belgique@agora.stm.it - cora.italia@agora.stm.it (Tel.++39-6-689.791).
INTERNATIONAL
LANGUAGE
UNITED NATIONS: N.G.O. COALITION FOR AN INTERNATIONAL
LANGUAGE
New York, May/June 1997 - As a result of its Category 1
status as an N.G.O., the Transnational Radical Party has
requested experimentation with the use of the international
language Esperanto as a language of work to a United Nations
commission. Unfortunately, the "Committee on N.G.O.'s"
was unable to complete its work session on June 12th, as was
scheduled, and as a result could not take the TRP recommendation
into consideration, thus postponing the discussion until January
of 1998.
In order to better coordinate the lobbying in New York and Geneva,
the TRP has promoted an N.G.O. coalition which includes the
Universala Esperanto Asocio, the World Federalist Movement, and
the Temple of Understanding, all of whom fully support the
radical proposal to the U.N.
In the coming months the coalition will, from its TRP office in
New York, continue its efforts to contact and pressure members of
the committee.
For more information:
TRP / 866 UN Plaza #408 / Tel: (212) 980-1031 Fax 980-1072
E-Mail trans.rad.ny@agora.stm.it
EUROPEAN
SECURITY
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: DECLARATION IN FAVOR OF THE
CREATION OF A COMMON DIPLOMACY
Strasburg, June 12th, 1997 - Before the announced tragedy
of the Intergovernmental Conference in Amsterdam regarding the
reform of Foreign Policy and Common Security (PESC), the European
Parliament has shown that precise solutions that would permit us
to accomplish significant progress not only exist, but that they
can also be met with a broad consensus.
In the "Spencer Report" on the progress that has been
made in the elaboration of PESC, the European Parliament "asks
the member states of the Union for that the delegation of the
Commission be used for the exclusive representation of our proper
interests, beyond those of the Union, in those nations where we
do not have a diplomatic presence."
The Secretary of the TRP praised the declaration by stating that:
"Whether it will be the Ministers of Foreign Affairs,
beginning with Quai D'Orsay or the Foreign Office, who will
present the greatest obstacle to the creation of a common foreign
policy and, as a consequence, a common diplomacy, is a unknown to
us. Strangely enough, however, there has been a phenomenon of
collective removal on this subject."
"By allowing the member states, who wish to do so, a time to
decide whether to trust the Commission's delegation to represent
their interests beyond those of the Union would permit all of the
Member States the opportunity to be represented throughout the
world (keep in mind that ten of the member states are present in
less than 90 of the 200 nation that make up the international
community), it would equally allow the construction of a truly
European diplomacy."
FREEDOM
FOR TIBET/DEMOCRACY FOR CHINA
CHINA/EP/MCMILLAN-SCOTT REPORT
The European Parliament has approved a report on an "a long-term
orientation for relations between China-Europe" (Mcmillan-Scott
Report). On the initiative of TRP Secretary and European Deputy
Olivier Dupuis, various amendments were added concerning Tibet,
Mongolia, Eastern Turkistan, Taiawn, and Hong Kong, as well as on
the violation of human rights throughout China. In the next issue
of "Freedom for Tibet-Democracy for China Fax" an
analysis of this important document, which was approved by the
European Parliament, will be published.
For more information on FREEDOM FOR TIBET/DEMOCRACY FOR CHINA FAX:
Tel: +36-1-266.34.86 - 266.09.35 Fax: 11.87.937 - E-Mail M.Lensi@agora.stm.it - WWW-URL:http//:www.agora.stm.it/pr/
LOOK WHO'S
JOINED THE TRP....
SUBSCRIPTION 1997-ITALY: FLAVIO RODEGHIERO,
DEPUTY OF THE NORTHERN LEAGUE
Rome, June 5th, 1997 - Following a meeting with Olivier Dupuis
and paolo Pietrosanti, Northern league Deputy Flavio Rodeghiero
joined the Transnational Radical Party, confirming in this way
his dedication to the campaign for the abolition of capital
punishment, the freedom of Tibet, and European security.
------------------------------------------------------
=== >>> MEMBERSHIP AND CONTRIBUTION FORM <<<
===
------------------------------------------------------
Pladge of ................... (equivalent of USD......)
- membership of the Transnational Radical Party 1997
- (see quote at bottom)
- Contribution for the campaign .....................
.........................................................
First Name...............................................
Last Name................................................
Place and date of birth..................................
Address (street, city, zip, nation)...........................
.........................................................
Tel........................... Fax.......................
Email................................
Payment:
1. With a credit card:
Credit card Account Number..............................
Card Company......................
Signature......................... Date of Exp...../.....
Send this form by fax to: +32-2-230.36.70 - 284.91.97 / 98
or phone to: +32-2-230.41.21
2. Through a bank transfer:
Have deposit sent to:
Transnational Radical Party
(Banking Institute - BBL Agency of European Parliament, 60 rue
Wiertz - 1047 Brussels BELGIUM)-(Account #) 310-1075385-32
SUBSCRIPTION FEES 1997:
The subscription fes vary from nation to nation, according to the
criteria of 1% of the PIL. They follow the fees relative to the
distibution of the bulletin in the nations where it is most
diffuse. For the missing nations, please contact the editorial
office.
Albania 5 USD - Austria 2.400 ATS - Azerbajian 3 USD - Belgium 7.000
BEF - Bulgaria 8 USD - Canada 285 CAD - Czech Republic 27 USD -
Croatia 35 DEM - Denmark 1.800 DKK - France 1.300 FRF - Germany
460 DEM - Hungary 27 USD -Ireland 78 IEP - Italy 365.000 LIT -
Netherlands 370 NLG - Poland 23 USD - Portugal 11.600 PTE -
Rumania 12 USD - Russia 19 USD - Slovenia 85 DEM - Spain 17.600
ESB - Switzerland 500 CHF - Ukraine 13 USD - United Kingdom 129
GBP - United States 260 USD.
|
