Below is information on the 2nd World Congress Against the Death Penalty. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Best, Rachel Good Rachel Good Penal Reform International 1120 19th Street, NW, 8th Floor Washington, DC 20036 www.penalreform.org <http://www.penalreform.org/> ********************* Come to the 2nd WORLD CONGRESS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY! Montreal, Canada October 6-9, 2004 Penal Reform International (PRI), the End to Capital Punishment Movement (ECPM USA) and the ECPM Network (Together Against the Death Penalty) are pleased to announce the 2nd World Congress Against the Death Penalty from October 6-9, 2004, in Montreal, Canada. Then, on October 10th we will celebrate the World Day Against the Death Penalty. The 2nd Word Congress Against the Death Penalty is modeled after the 1st World Congress, which was organized by ECPM in 2001 in Strasbourg, France at the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. During the 1st World Congress, 52 Presidents of Parliament called for abolition of the death penalty. Organizations were challenged to unite and establish a World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Objectives of the 2nd World Congress * To convince additional governments to abolish the death penalty definitively, with a special focus on those countries that have not carried out an execution for more than ten years; * To re-launch an international campaign to ratify the Second Protocol of the United Nations International Civil and Political Rights Pact while highlighting those countries that abolished the death penalty in their respective constitutions; * To reinforce pledges not to extradite individuals from countries that have abolished the death penalty to those that continue to implement the death penalty; * To offer an international forum to national coalitions and abolitionist from countries that retain the death penalty; and, * To strengthen the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. We want YOU to participate! The 2nd World Congress organizers want national, public, and citizen delegations from all over the world to participate. The objective is to have the largest possible number of countries represented at the Congress. Our five priorities for mobilization are mayors, legislators, legal professionals, university students and professors, and NGOs. Say NO to the death penalty! The organizers call for young people, artists, and individuals affected by the death penalty (prisoners, prisoners' families, and victims' families) to create works to be presented during the Congress. Drawings, writings, short stories, paintings, video and audio recordings that deal with capital punishment will be exhibited and broadcast in the Abolitionist Center during the Congress. 2nd World Congress Program * Wednesday, October 6 (am): Opening plenary session * Wednesday, October 6 (pm): The Americas on the Road to Abolition * Thursday, October 7: Roundtables/debates organized around: (1) abolition strategies; (2) promoting an international law of abolition ; (3) promoting penal reforms in view of abolition ; and, (4) convincing death penalty supporters. * Thursday, October 7 (evening): Forum for students organized jointly by Rights & Democracy and the University of Sherbrooke. Students from the Americas and the rest of the world will present selected papers on the death penalty, followed by debate and adoption of a solemn declaration by youth against the death penalty. * Friday, October 8 (am): World assembly of abolitionist legal professionals, and world assembly of legislators against the death penalty. * Friday, October 8 (pm): Final reports and closing session * Friday, October 8 (evening): Cultural events * Saturday, October 9 (am): Peaceful street demonstration through Montreal * The Abolitionist Center will be open during the three days of the Congress. It will include information tables; testimonials by death row prisoners and victims' families; an abolition-oriented bookstore and library; and art exhibits. Congress Organizers and Partners Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort, created in France in 2000 by Michel Taube, has a membership of nearly 500, including bar associations, local communities, and public figures. ECPM opened offices in New York, Geneva, Brussels, and Canada. The objectives of ECPM are to craft a global and multi-dimensional strategy to promote abolition in a greater number of countries, to internationalize the struggle against the death penalty (within the globalization of the human rights movement), to mobilize new actors in this struggle and facilitate their coordination, and to deploy an effective legal strategy to assist those who attempt to prevent both death sentences and executions. ECPM is at the core of the international abolitionist movement, serving as executive secretariat of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, which brings together: Penal Reform International, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and assorted bar associations (eg, Paris), among others. ECPM coordinates the World Day Against the Death Penalty, mobilizing hundreds of people on October 10 each year. It is also involved in international lobbying efforts, including the UN Human Rights Commission and the EU Human Rights Forum. Penal Reform International (PRI) is an international organization, registered in Groningen, in the Netherlands, with its headquarters in London. PRI also has permanent regional offices in France, Romania, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Costa Rica, Malawi, Rwanda and Burundi, and the United States. PRI has a Category II consultative status with both the United Nations and the Council of Europe, as well as observer status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. PRI's primary objective is to work towards penal reform, within culturally diverse contexts. PRI campaigns for: * The development and application of international human rights norms in terms of the application of laws, and the conditions governing incarceration. * The elimination of unjust, unethical and discriminatory practices in all aspects of judiciary policy. * The abolition of capital punishment * The limitation of recourse to imprisonment * The movement towards constructive, non-carceral sentences, which promote the re-socialization of delinquents, while protecting the interests of victims. PRI seeks to counsel and support local actors and to involve civil society in the administration and application of justice. It has been involved in the struggle against the death penalty for a number of years, and is involved in numerous national and international projects and actions to promote the abolition of capital punishment, namely in the Caribbean, Eastern Europe (Kazakhstan, Russia, Kirghizstan), East Africa (Malawi), in Arab countries (Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon) and in Asia (Pakistan). End to Capital Punishment Movement (ECPM), USA is an independent organization established in October 2002 by Michel Taube and Franco-American citizen Marc Jacquand. ECPM USA works in tandem with ECPM in Paris and has three main objectives: * To provide an international perspective on abolition via a quarterly newsletter of information and ideas concerning the death penalty; * To guide and support the debate against the death penalty by constructively engaging American citizens in constitutional and societal reflections on how to move towards abolition ; and, * To meet abolitionist groups state by state, encouraging them to coordinate their efforts and create delegations to attend the Congress. ECPM and PRI are organizing the Congress, with the active support of the Montreal Institute of International Studies (UQAM) and Rights & Democracy. The governments of Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Quebec have lent their financial and political support. Other 2nd World Congress partners include the National Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Death Penalty Focus, CURE (Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants), the Rosenberg Fund for Children, the Southern Center for Human Rights, Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, and the ACLU Capital Punishment Project. Further information and electronic registration can be found on the website of the Congress: www.montreal2004.org <http://www.montreal2004.org/> . For more information about the organizers, please consult: www.abolition-ecpm.org <http://www.abolition-ecpm.org/> www.penalreform.org <http://www.penalreform.org/> www.montreal2004.org <http://www.montreal2004.org/>
