Gathering with World Coalition members

Renny is in Rome, representing MVFHR at the General Assembly Meeting of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. The Coalition's press release says:

Organized at the invitation of the Community of Sant’Egidio, one of the founding members of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, the General Assembly will be an opportunity for WCADP members to gather, share experience about the current situation of the capital punishment, and establish new strategies for its universal abolition.

The World Coalition, seven years after its creation, will hold its first annual general meeting as an independent organization in the Italian capital, where it was founded informally in 2002. The number of NGOs, trade unions, local authorities and bar associations involved has increased eight-fold between the two Rome meetings. The World Coalition hopes to reach 100 members covering 40 countries in 2009.

And from the Coalition's website, a summary of the group's plans for the coming months:

Following the campaign against the death penalty in China in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics, the focus on Asia for World Day Against the Death Penalty on 10 October 2008 and the successful co-ordination of lobbying efforts to secure a second UN General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on executions in November, World Coalition members are set to design fresh campaigns for the coming months.

The title of the 2009 World Day will be “Teaching abolition”. Member organizations will target higher secondary school students by encouraging teachers to organize abolition-related activities. The World Coalition is putting together a pedagogical kit to help teachers in that task. Law school students are a secondary target group.

Later this year, the World Coalition will also launch a campaign to encourage 10 target countries to ratify the UN’s Protocol to abolish the death penalty, which makes it illegal for state parties to ever reintroduce capital punishment. The World Coalition is already planning campaigns for 2010, including a World Day focus on the United States and participation to the drafting of the UN Secretary General’s report in preparation for a fresh UN General Assembly debate on the moratorium issue.