UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - Italian diplomats at the U.N. are working hard to win over more support for their proposed resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions - but are still short of the necessary pledges to be certain that an eventual General Assembly vote would be decisive enough to give a historic boost to the abolitionist cause.
Some 88 countries have so far signed a declaration of association with Italy's death penalty moratorium proposal, according to an official from Amnesty International. "But the Italians need at least 100 signatures," one source here told IPS. This was the minimum number for Italy to be confident that the moratorium would win a majority vote in the 192-member General Assembly.
"There certainly is momentum for a U.N. moratorium," Louise Arbor, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, confirmed to IPS. "I sense that there is a growing will for a moratorium," she said, adding confidently, "and also for, in the end, abolishing the death penalty."
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"In economic life there is extreme inequality and exploitation. Although colonialism no longer exists openly in the political and economic sphere, still it persists indirectly, and this should not be tolerated... In this respect you should remember that in economic life, we will have to guarantee the minimum requirements of life to one and all... There cannot be any sort of adjustment as far as this point is concerned. The minimum purchasing requirement must be guaranteed to all. Today these fundamental essentialities are not being guaranteed. Rather, people are being guided by deceptive economic ideas like outdated Marxism, which has proven ineffective in practical life and has not been successfully implemented in any corner of the world. Why do people still believe in such a theory, which has never been proved successful? The time has come for people to make a proper assessment of whether they are being misguided or not." |
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |