APPROVATA
A GINEVRA LA RISOLUZIONE PER UNA MORATORIA UNIVERSALE DELLA PENA
DI MORTE
Comunicato
stampa della Comunit� di Sant'Egidio
- 26 aprile 2001
ONU:
SETTANTA STATI CONTRO LA PENA DI MORTE Ginevra
- Come accade ogni anno dal 1997, la Commissione dell'ONU per i
diritti umani ha approvato ieri una risoluzione sull'abolizione
della pena di morte. Il documento, presentato dall'Unione europea
a al quale si sono associati quasi 70 Paesi, esorta le nazioni che
tutt'ora vi fanno ricorso a istituire una moratoria sulle
esecuzioni in vista della definitiva abolizione della pena
capitale. dei 53 Paesi membri della Commissione, 27 - tra i quali
la Russia - hanno votato a favore del testo, 18 hanno votato
contro e 7 si sono astenuti. Nel campo del �no� gli Stati uniti
si sono ritrovati accanto a Paesi come Libia, Cina, Giappone,
Siria, Indonesia,e Arabia Saudita. Tra gli astenuti, Cuba e India.
Wed 25 Apr 2001
GENEVA
� The top U.N. human rights body called Wednesday for a
worldwide moratorium on executions as a step toward ending capital
punishment. But the United States was joined by Japan, China,
Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and other countries in opposing an
anti-death penalty resolution put forward by the European Union to
the U.N. Human Rights Commission. The vote was 27-18 in favor of
the EU proposal. Seven countries abstained, and one � Liberia
� was absent. U.S. Ambassador George Moose told the commission
that there was public debate on the death penalty in the United
States, but all agreed that ``due process must be rigorously
applied'' if it is used. ``Each nation should decide for itself
through democratic processes whether its domestic law should
permit capital punishment,'' he said.
The
EU motion urged countries that allow the death penalty ``to
establish a moratorium with a view to completely abolishing the
death penalty.'' The resolution also urged countries to refuse
extradition ``in the absence of effective assurances ... that
capital punishment will not be carried out.'' Swedish Ambassador
Johan Molander, who spoke for the EU, said abolition of the death
penalty was fundamental to EU human rights policy. In previous
years the 53-nation commission has endorsed four similar death
penalty resolutions.
Human
rights campaigners welcomed the resolution even though it is
nonbinding. ``It weakens the argument that the death penalty is an
internal affair,'' Mario Marazziti, spokesman for Italy's
Community of Sant'Egidio, told The Associated Press. In December,
the group handed the United Nations a 3 million- signature
petition supporting a moratorium.
``It's
really a human rights issue,'' he said. And more countries are
joining the abolitionist camp, he said: ``Only two weeks ago both
Chile and Ukraine passed abolition laws.'' By keeping the death
penalty the United States is isolating itself from democratic,
abolitionist countries, said Amnesty International spokeswoman
Anna Wegelin.
Amnesty
says 108 countries have either abolished the death penalty or do
not apply their death penalty laws. Eighty-seven still use it. On
Tuesday, an Amnesty report said the high-profile execution of
Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh risks turning him into a
martyr for those who share his radical beliefs.
McVeigh
is scheduled to die May 16 by lethal injection for the 1995
bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in which 168
people, including 19 children, were killed and more than 500
injured.
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