Italy: Campaign for abolition of life sentences
01 November 2008
On Monday 1 December 2008, Italian prison lifers will start a hunger strike which will last a week for every prison across Italy. This is to demand the abolition of sentences lasting a whole lifetime. The prisoners’ state:
Our lives have been stolen away. They have been taken from us for ever.
Why should we not struggle to get them back?
'And this is what is asked of a man: that he should do well to other men. If possible to many. If not that, then to a few. If not that, then at least unto himself' (Seneca).
He who refuses to struggle is a useless man indeed as well as being someone who places his future in the hands of those that are worse than himself.
Every prisoner must first of all search for freedom inside himself and start struggling for his fundamental rights to be respected. These are;
• The right to legality being present within prisons;
• The right to freedom and hope;
• The right to give and receive love and affection.
• Respect of Article 5 of the International Declaration of Human Rights of 1948: That states that no man, woman or child must become subject to torture, or any cruel treatment or penalty, inhuman and degrading.
• Respect of the ONU Declaration of 30/08/1955, concerning the basic formal rules which should be respected in dealing with prisoners;
• Of the international pact concerning civil and political rights of prisoners;
• Of the Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments, which was signed in New York on the 10/12/1984;
• Of the Convention for the safeguard of Human Rights within European jails and prisons.
Even the European Court of Human Rights has expressed a negative opinion on this country - which has the cheekiness to comment on it's attitude towards human rights - where some prisoners are submitted to total isolation. They are not allowed even to see, from their windows the sun, the stars or the moon. Many of them have spent decades without giving or receiving a kiss or simply human touching by their wives, mothers or children.
In this country there are prisoners who are not allowed to talk, let alone sing!
A right given even to the slaves who picked cotton in the past centuries!
Also, in this country there is a sentence - and it is the only country in the world where it is so- that really lasts a lifetime because it has been rendered opposite to any sort of benefit.
A life prisoner in this country is a living dead man. A live corpse, who cannot be resuscitated because there is a law which stops this person from coming back to life."
A new organisation, which will be called Liberarsi (to become free) will soon come into being. Its goal will be involvement in fighting life detention as well as contrasting penitentiary differentiation both on a local, national and international scale.
http://www.informacarcere.it/campagna_ergastolo.php?language=uk
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