President
ABOUT US
Since 1993, the life of rights for the right to life.
Hands Off Cain — Spes contra spem is a radical, nonviolent, transnational, transparty and non-profit association, founded in Brussels in 1993. We fight for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide, of life imprisonment without parole, of death caused by punishment and of prevention when it is worse than the punishment itself. We are members of the Council of Europe and with the UN-ECOSOC Special Consultative Status.
ABOUT US
Justice, not vengeance.
The name is inspired by the Genesis: «And the Lord set a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should smite him». Hands off Cain means justice without vengeance. We achieved our first great milestone in 2007, when the United Nations General Assembly approved the Resolution for a Universal Moratorium on executions - not an abolition imposed by decree but through dialogue. In 2019, we obtained, from the European Court of Human Rights, a ruling that affirmed the "right to hope" against life imprisonment without parole. Today, we are committed to abolishing prisons in the sense of the original meaning of the word "carcar", to bury, to entomb. In other words, "a cemetery of the living", as Filippo Turati defined them back in 1904. Not only the abolition of the death penalty, of life imprisonment without parole and a de facto death sentence through a life lost in a horrifying prison system, Hands Off Cain also takes on Italy's regime of prevention when it proves worse than the punishments themselves.
- 1993
- FOUNDED IN BRUSSELS
- 98%
- EXECUTIONS IN AUTHORITARIAN COUNTRIES
- 130
- COUNTRIES IN FAVOUR · UN MORATORIUM 2024
- 122
- ABOLITIONIST COUNTRIES
WHAT WE DO
01 — DEATH PENALTY
Toward the end of the Cain-State
We must move forward, beyond the death penalty, freeing first of all ourselves and clearing the field of the mental and structural apparatus of judgment: investigations and tribunals, sentences and punishments, prosecutors and judges, jailers and executioners.
02 — DEATH BY PUNISHMENT
Toward the end of punishment
Prisons are not only places of deprivation of liberty. Because what is missing are the fundamental senses and the most meaningful human contacts. The punishment is corporal, the harm is existential, the suffering is grave for everyone, not only for the detained, but also for those who detain.
03 — WHEN PREVENTING IS WORSE than punishing
Enough with the witch-hunt
In the name of the war on the mafia, summary trials and medieval punishments — such as seizures and confiscations of assets, prefectural bans, the dissolution of municipalities — have been added to, and often preferred over, contemporary trials and criminal penalties.
OUR STORY
More than thirty years of battles.
1993
Hands off Cain is born as a league of citizens and parliamentarians for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide.
1994
First UN campaign for a universal moratorium on executions.
2000
"We, on death row" campaign by Olivieto Toscani using images of death row inmates in the United States.
2007
The UN General Assembly approves the moratorium resolution for the first time.
2013
The European Court of human rights delivers the judgment Torreggiani vs Italy on prison overcrowding.
2019
The European Court of human rights delivers the judgment Viola vs Italy on life imprisonment without parole.
2021
Launch of the campaign "When prevention is worse than punishment" for a reform of preventive, interdictory measures and dissolution of local councils on grounds of mafia.
2023
"Visiting prisoners": over 100 visits a year to penal institutions to monitor and raise awareness of the living conditions of the detained and the working conditions of the detaining staff.
2026
166 countries abolitionist de facto and the jure of the death penalty. 33 retentionist.
HONORARY PRESIDENCY
- Santi Consolo
- Vincenzo Maiello
- Tullio Padovani
- Andrea Saccucci
TEAM AND BODIES
Who carries the battle forward.
Secretary
Sergio D'Elia
Co-founder (1993) and Secretary of Hands off Cain, a nonviolent leader, former member of parliament and author of investigative books on the distortions of the anti-mafia legal system.
Treasurer
Elisabetta Zamparutti
Co-founder (1993) and Treasurer of Hands off Cain (since 2003), former member of parliament and member of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT).
Fundraising
Alberto Maria Genovese
Entrepreneur
GENERAL COUNCIL
- Porzia Addabbo
- Gianni Alemanno
- Matteo Angioli
- Massimo Arlechino
- Umberto Baccolo
- Vito Baglio
- Elena Baldi
- Sandro Barchiesi
- Marco Beltrandi
- Padre Guido Bertagna
- Domenico Bilotti
- Salvatore Bonadonna
- Anna Briganti
- Pasquale Bronzo
- Maria Brucale
- Antonio Buonfiglio
- Cesare Burdese
- Santo Cambareri
- Federico Canziani
- Pietro Cavallotti
- Federico Celano
- Paolo Cesari
- Marco Clarke
- Antonio Coniglio
- Claudio Conte
- Raffaele Conte
- Donatella Corleo
- Fabrizio Costarella
- Ambrogio Crespi
- Andrea Cuzzocrea
- Tonino D'Angelo
- Vincent Delbos
- Nino Di Guardo
- Vincenzo Di Paolo
- Gianpietro Doni
- Luca Doniselli
- Andreana Esposito
- Fabio Falbo
- Corrado Favara
- Ester Ferdeghini
- Maria Chiara Gadda
- Davide Galliani
- Salvatore Galluzzo
- Bruno Gambardella
- Alessandro Gargiulo
- Roberto Giachetti
- Carmen Gualtieri
- Norberto Guerriero
- Vincenzo Improta
- Paolo Ingrao
- Giuseppe La Gala
- Baldassare Lauria
- Gianluca Liut
- Renzo Magosso
- Tiziana Maiolo
- Francesca Mambro
- Silvja Manzi
- Enrico Marignani
- Antonella Mascia
- Diego Mazzola
- Bruno Mellano
- Esmail Mohades
- Nicla Moiraghi
- Francesco Morelli
- Davide Mosso
- Giuseppe Napoli
- Andrea Nicolosi
- Cosimo Palumbo
- Orazio Paolello
- Mauro Paolinelli
- Patrizia Patrizi
- Stefano Petrella
- Maria Teresa Pintus
- Maurizio Pistorio
- Bianca Piscolla
- Renata Polverini
- Andrea Pugiotto
- Gaetano Puzzangaro
- Elisabetta Rampelli
- Roberto Rampi
- Sabrina Renna
- Angelo Riccardi
- Giorgia Ricci
- Mimmo Risica
- Fulvio Rizzo
- Thomas Roeth
- Alessandro Rosasco
- Carla Rossi
- Mara Rossi
- Giuseppe Rossodivita
- Blanca Ruiz-Zorrilla
- don Vincenzo Russo
- Marco Scurria
- Emiliano Silvestri
- Sonia Sommacal
- Marco Sorbara
- Raffaella Stacciarini
- Guglielmo Starace
- Lorenzo Strik-Lievers
- Giovanni Terzi
- Azalen Tomaselli
- Michele Vaira
- Clara Veneto
- Simona Ventura
- Matteo Zamboni
- Pierdonato Zito
TEN YEARS LATER · 19 MAY 2016—2026
Marco Pannella, the founder.
Tenth anniversary of the death of Marco Pannella, the founder. A life made of hunger strikes, sit-ins, non-violent battles for human rights, the abolition of the death penalty, the justice that does not punish but repairs. Our battle continues because he taught it to us.
«The death penalty is not justice. It is vengeance organised by the State. It is the proof that the State surrenders to hatred.»
— MARCO PANNELLA, 1993