[Deathpenalty] PRESIDENT OF UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO RECEIVE OVER 5 MILLIONSIGNATURES CALLING FOR A MORATORIUM ON EXECUTIONS

[Rick Halperin]

Dear Friends,

Please circulate this release to your media contacts.
Thanks.
Renny Cushing

********************


Media Release
For Immediate Release

PRESIDENT OF UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO RECEIVE OVER 5 MILLION SIGNATURES
CALLING FOR A MORATORIUM ON EXECUTIONS

Signatures were collected worldwide by the Community of Sant'Egidio and
the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

A delegation of anti-death penalty activists from around the world will
meet with the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr.
Srgian Kerim, on Friday, November 2, at 10:30 AM, to deliver a petition
containing over five million signatures that urge the General Assembly to
pass a resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions.

The delegation, led by Mario Marazziti of the Community of Sant'Egidio,
will include Sister Helen Prejean, leading American advocate of the
abolition of the death penalty and the woman behind the movie Dead Man
Walking, Yvonne Terlingen, Head of Amnesty International's UN Office in
New York, Renny Cushing, Marie Verzulli, and Bill Babbitt from Murder
Victims' Families for Human Rights, an international organization of
victims' family members and family members of the executed, Speedy Rice
from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Elizabeth
Zitrin, member of the executive board of Death Penalty Focus.

Angola, Albania, Brazil, Croatia, Gabon, Mexico, the Philippines,
Portugal (for the EU), and New Zealand are presenting the text of the
resolution to the General Assembly as a cross-regional initiative. Close
to one hundred other countries have signed on as co-sponsors.

After meeting with the President of the General Assembly, the delegation
will hold a press conference at 11:00 AM at UNCA CLUB, UN, Room 326, at
the Third Floor of UN Headquarters.

Videotaped statements will also be available from Rev. Rowan Williams,
Primate of the Church of England (London), Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Nobel
Peace Prize laureate (Buenos Aires), Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino,
President of the Pontifical Council Justice and Peace (Vatican City), and
Siti Musdah Muliva, Moslem theologian at the University of Jakarta.

Appointments:

UN HEADQUARTERS
UN, 10.30, President's office
UN, 11 AM, UNCA CLUB, Room 326, Third Floor

Contacts:

Mario Marazziti
Telephone: +39 335 726 3641
Mobile +39 346 850 1247
email/blackberry: m.marazziti at gmail.com

Yvonne Terlingen
Telephone +1212 867 8878 ext 2
Mobile + 1917 406 1185
Fax +1212 370 0183



Renny Cushing, Executive Director
Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights
2161 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02140
617 491 9600 Office
617 930 5196 Mobile
www.mvfhr.org
www.mvfhr.blogspot.com/
rrcushing at earthlink.net