News stories by Elisabetta Zamparutti

ROME, Dic 04 (IPS) - On Dec. 18, 2007, the approval of a resolution for a moratorium on executions by the United Nations General Assembly was hailed as a milestone in the struggle to abolish the death penalty worldwide. It is true that the United Nations may not impose the abolition of the death penalty, but the moral and political value of the resolution is undeniable.

In China, a reduction in the number of executions carried out in recent years was accompanied by a promising statement by the vice president of the Supreme Court that the country would gradually slow the implementation of capital punishment to the point that there is "a very limited number of executions", writes Elisabetta Zamparutti, a deputy in the Italian parliament, a leader of the Radical Party, and editor of the annual report on the Death Penalty in the World for Hands Off Cain.