On October 10th, 2007, the World Day against the Death Penalty will focus on the proposed UN General Assembly resolution for a universal moratorium on executions. The City of Venice supported the initiative and the campaign.
Saint Egidio's Community, it's a motivated movement involved in peace and solidarity initiatives. It has chosen Venice as the ideal city for the international campaign opening " stop the death penalty", which intended to collect 5 million signatures by 2005 against the death penalty and to forward them to UN's Secretary General.
Venice has started the "Venice for life" initiative, which it's divided into a series of events, with the collaboration of Actv, which has used the line #1 boats - Grand Canal - to promote this campaign. Some poll boxes have been placed in the municipality's offices, in the city and in civic museums.
November the 30th 2003 was set as the European day against death penalty;
Venice has joined it with Rome, Barcelona, Paris and Washington, illuminating one of the city's emblematic monuments as a symbol of life against violence and death, and organizing a concert sponsored by the "La Fenice" organization.
Informative, communication and monitoring initiatives are moving along, backed up by the Italian Coalition against death penalty. Since October 1998 more than 5 million signatures have been collected over 100 states in the world.
Sant'Egidio' s Community web site: www.santegidio.org
Italian Coalition Against Death Penalty 's web site: www.coalit.org
Appeal for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty - 2007