Informative campaigns to promote the moratorium on executions

• "New York, New York". In autumn 1994, the New York, New York campaign was launched in Italy at the same time that Member States were being asked at the UN to cosponsor the resolution for the moratorium on executions. The signatures of thousands of citizens and over 300 million lire were collected to finance to informative advertisements in The New York Times. On 23 November, the signatures were presented by a delegation of parliamentarians and abolitionist activists to the then Secretary-general Boutros-Ghali at the UN office in Rome.
• "Cento città contro la pena di morte" ("One Hundred Cities against the Death Penalty"). At the end of July 1995, exponents from Hands off Cain travelled the length and breadth of Italy in a camper to meet with the mayors of numerous cities. Many local institutions - Municipalities, Regions, Provinces - decided to join Hands off Cain and to support the campaign for a moratorium on executions.
• "Stacca la spina" ("Unplug!"). On 26 December 1995, Hands off Cain organised a concert against the death penalty, in Rome. Twenty singers and groups took part in the event. The proceeds went to Hands off Cain, and the concert was broadcast on New Year´s Eve by RAI Channel 3.
• Visits to Death Row
• In February 1996, Hands off Cain visited death row inmates at Angola Prison in Louisiana, which became known all over the world through the book Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean on which the film with the same title was based, for which Susan Sarandon won an Oscar for Best Actress in 1995. A video was made on the visit and aired in Italy on Cronaca in diretta, a RAI current affairs programme, and a reportage appeared in the Italian news weekly Panorama. While the moratorium on executions was actually being discussed at the UN, Hands Off Cain and former European Commissioner Emma Bonino, visited condemned prisoners in the penitentiaries of Texas, Illinois and Florida, with a view to relating the stories of inmates and their human and legal experiences, in order to involve public opinion. These visits to death rows were covered by leading European news teams.
• In November 1999, while the EU Resolution for a moratorium on executions was actually being discussed at the UN, Hands Off Cain and former European Commissioner the Hon. Emma Bonino, has visited condemned prisoners in the penitentiaries of Texas, Illinois and Florida, with a view to relating the stories of inmates and their human and legal experiences, in order to involve public opinion. These visits to death rows were covered by leading European news teams.
• "The Journey of Hope". In June 1998, Hands off Cain met with Governor George W. Bush´s General Adviser and presented him with EP and UN resolutions for the moratorium on executions and for the reform of Texas legislation on clemency, granted only when the condemned prisoner is proved innocent. This meeting was followed by: a visit to death row inmates at Huntsville; the publication of a full-page abolitionist advertisement in the Austin American-Statesman, the capital´s leading daily; the first big protest march through the streets of Austin in many years, promoted by Journey of Hope, the association of victims´ relatives who have said "no" to the death penalty.
• Nobel laureates´ appeal. On 19 November 1998, Sister Helen Prejean, author of the book Dead Man Walking, and Tim Robbins, who directed the film based on the book, led the delegation from Hands off Cain which presented UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan with an appeal for a moratorium on executions launched by Nobel prize winners and internationally famous personalities, including the Dalai Lama, Rita Levi Montalcini, Desmond Tutu, Dario Fo, Nadine Gordimer, José Saramago, Mario Cuomo and Emma Bonino. The appeal appeared in the form of an advertisement in the International Herald Tribune and the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that same day.
• "We, on death row". Between 1999 and 2000, Hands off Cain promoted the Benetton Group´s campaign "We, on death row" and collaborated on its realisation, putting at Benetton´s disposal the association´s contacts for entering various maximum security prisons in the United States. The images and words of the death-row inmates who had agreed to be the testimonials were talked about the world over, causing a sensation and, at times, fierce controversy. On account of this campaign, the Benetton Group was denounced and boycotted in the United States.
• "The Coliseum Illuminates Life". Hands off Cain, together with Amnesty International and the Sant´Egidio Community, promoted the initiative "The Coliseum Illuminates Life." Throughout 2000 the ancient monument synonymous with Rome will be lit up every time a State decides to impose a moratorium on executions or abolish the death penalty, or when an execution is suspended or a death sentence commuted. The initiative was inaugurated on 12 December 1999, and has been taken up by the international media.  
• “Stop the death penalty through Internet”
• Italy. On March 15, 2001, HOC launched its online campaign to raise awareness of the death penalty and gather support for a worldwide moratorium through a GA resolution. The campaign was created after the EU’s decision to withdraw the resolution at the 1999 GA. The launch of “Stop the death penalty through Internet” took place in Rome’s biggest Internet café, EasyEverything. This activity attracted the support of well-known entertainers, sports personalities and intellectuals, music bands and singers, actors, actresses and journalists. The biggest result was gathering 10,000 signatures in a single day. Over 200 websites that displayed the campaign banner, contributed to this success. The event got huge media coverage.
• Spain. The campaign then moved on to Spain, where one of Madrid’s major Internet cafes, BBIGG, hosted the second edition on March 16, 2002. This event was timed to urge, and assist efforts for, more support for the death penalty resolution the Spanish EU presidency was presenting at the CHR session just underway. Results included: the adhesion of the main protagonists of the Spanish entertainment, political and other public scenes; support from major Spanish websites including El Mundo.es, MTV Espana e Ya.com; huge media coverage and 10,000 signatures in a single day.
• 2002 – 2004: European cities. Similar events to those in Rome and Madrid were organised in Nuremberg (October 29, 2002), Stockholm (November 6, 2002), Athens (April 15, 2003), Paris (September 24, 2003), Milan (May 27, 2004) and London (December 12, 2004). All the events were targeted at raising public awareness to reinforce the EU’s resolution on the death penalty at the CHR and then the GA and were realised through a project financed by the EU.
• Amina Lawal September 25, 2003: the Shariah Court of Appeal ruled that Amina Lawal´s conviction was invalid because she was already pregnant when harsh Islamic Shariah law was implemented in her home province. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo had said if Lawal´s case reached the Supreme Court, he would make sure it was overturned.
  On Amina Lawal´s acquittal, Hands Off Cain declared that the sentence shows the political and propagandistic nature of Nigerian Sharia law: an acquittal was preferred in the Islamic state in order to avoid a declaration of unconstitutionality on behalf of the secular Federal Supreme Court. Hands off Cain trusted in assurances from President Olusegun Obasanjo, and for this reason gave up our efforts to save Amina more than a year ago.
  We have had to instead witness in these months tenacious demonstrations, on behalf of abolitionist organisations, radio programs and national parliaments, which have resulted in the criminalisation of Nigeria and its President, making it seem in the world´s eyes that the country is one where stonings take place and its president one of many military heads which have governed Nigeria in the past.
  All this took place whilst Sharia law and stonings were being implemented and carried out in countries such as Iran, and President Khatami was hailed by Europe as a "great reformer", invited and received in the European capitals as the most welcome of guests.
  We know that Nigerian Sharia is not the same as Iranian Sharia, it is instead a "political Sharia", a weapon used by the Northern states against Obasanjo. We knew that Amina was protected at Federal level, not just by the President, but by the Nigerian Constitution, which is tolerant and secular and allows for the study and dissemination of the of the Holy Koran, but not for the practice of Sharia Law, whether it be stonings or other punishments.
• "Thought is forbidden: the face of repression in Cuba", an exhibition by Oliviero Toscani for Hands Off Cain. It represents the 75 dissidents - many of whom supporters of the 'Varela project' that aims to gather signatures for a referendum to propose the introduction of a multi-party system in Cuba - arrested by Castro's regime on March 18, 2003. A few days later they were given jail terms ranging from 6 to 28 years in jail on charges such as treason or political conspiracy under the Law for the Protection of National Independence and the Economy of Cuba, a gag law better known as Law No. 88. Rivero, ailing economist Martha Beatriz Roque, trade unionist Pedro Pablo Alvarez and journalist Ricardo Conzalez were among those jailed. Hot on the heels of these arrests, the Cuban government executed three men who had hijacked a ferry-boat in a failed bid to cross the straits to Florida. Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Barbaro Leodan Sevilla Garcia and Jorge Luis Martinez Isaac were prosecuted and condemned for "very grave acts of terrorism" on April 8. They were shot at dawn on April 11. Their deaths brought to an end three years of de facto moratorium on executions on the island. The exhibition was held in Florence (July 4th, 2004), Rome (October 11, 2004) and Turin (November 12, 2004).