(Approved with 92.72% of the votes)

The 37th Congress of the Radical Party, gathered in Rome on 7 and 8 April 1995,

thanks the executive organs, the members, the supporters, and the militants of Hands Off Cain (Campaign of citizens and parliamentarians for the abolition of the death penalty in the world by the year 2000) who, in difficult and uncomfortable situations, is spite of the lack of financial and human resources, but with the personal militant commitment and the strenght of their convictions and hopes, have allowed Gandhian nonviolence and tolerant, secular and humanistic dialogue to bring the Assembly of the United Nations to discuss, for the first time in its history, the moratorium on the death penalty, and to take the first crucial steps towards the establishment of an international criminal jurisdiction on crimes against humanity.

There have also been important, though still not decisive, results with regard to the other fronts on which the party and the associations that collaborate with it, or that are federated to it, have directed their campaigns in accordance with the mandate received from the Sofia General Council of July 1993. The Congress debate confirms the urgency and the validity of all these initiatives. They are expressions, all equally necessary, of the Radical method and of Radical politics.

This is true, in particular, of the campaign for harm reduction and for the denouncement of the UN conventions on drugs which are the foundation of national prohibitionist legislations and which are the main cause of the abnormal growth of the black market, the drugs' mafias and corruption, which are increasingly the uncontrolled masters of political and economic power; the campaigns on the international language and on Aids and pandemics, and the campaign for the creation of a Danube Authority and against the crazy nuclear energy policies in the countries of the former Soviet empire.

The Congress must, however, take note of the fact that the Party does not at present seem to be in a position to continue these battles and successes, let alone to meet the new objectives that have been set out or the imminent arrival of increasingly urgent problems.

All over the world, in fact, certainties once taken for granted are being undermined by crises and dramatic events: there is hardly a region which is free from the expansion of uncontrolled violence, manifest in new forms of unprecedented terrorism, the unruly proliferation of outbursts of irrationalism that overturn the principles of tolerance and civil co-habitation. All over the world, hopes and aspirations which may be positive, justified and necessary are assuming the form of intolerant fundamentalism, incapable of dialogue.

Europe, on its part, stands resigned and powerless in the face of the decline and the abandonment of Spinelli's federalist plan for the construction of a political body endowed with decision-making powers, open to the entrance of new countries, or able to provide them with the humanitarian aid and support necessary to help them on the path to democracy.

The United Nations, considered until recently as the indispensable guarantee of world balance and peace, is in the midst of a crisis of credibility which can only be solved by interventions that increase its internal democracy and efficiency.

Finally, there is a shameful silence from governments and public opinion towards the unheard voice of the Dalai Lama, when he appeals to the conscience of the world about the oppression suffered by Tibet in the context of the totalitarian denial of democracy and justice for the whole Chinese people. In order to ensure the survival of Tibet and of the warning provided by Tien An Men, to prevent the efficiency-seeking Communism of China from becoming another tragic model, we must work to give shape to the hope, both extravagant and reasonable, of a great worldwide initiative that reinvents the forms of organized nonviolence in a great Satyagraha.

The Congress confirms the analysis presented by the executive organs of the party, according to which the causes of the current difficulties lie in the lack of funds, which can no longer be guaranteed by the decisive contribution of members and supporters paying the Italian fees or their equivalent, and even more so in the fact that it is no longer possible for the party's militants and leaders - despite their exceptional work up to now and for which the Congress thanks them - to meet the urgent needs and requirements in an appropriate manner.

Continuing under the present conditions, the Radical Party would be reduced to the status of a powerless bystander, an alibi for violence and resignation.

These difficulties can only be overcome through a drastic revision of its instruments, structures, and working methods, and by the full assumption of executive and militant responsibilities by new human resources, both those already present in the party and those who choose to join it in acknowledgement of its importance as the only transnational instrument of our times.

In order to allow this revision to be planned, organized and implemented,

the 37th Congress - like the 35th Congress of the transnational refoundation of the Party in 1989 - hands over its statutory powers for a maximum of one year to the Secretary, the Treasurer, and the President of the Party, who must exercise them jointly and unanimously for all the decisions regarding the life of the Radical Party. In particular, the Congress assigns them the task of drawing up a project for the refoundation of the party and of taking the measures they believe to be necessary for its restructuring.

The Congress also declares that the General Council in extra-ordinary arrangement will be composed of 31 members elected by the Congress.

These modifications to the statute constitute temporary rules of the Statute of the Radical Party.

The Congress also appeals to the members, the Radical associations and the federate associations to increase the amount of organized Radical political action in order to reinforce through concrete commitment the reasons, the ideals and the objectives of the Party.

Finally, the Congress extends its greeting to those who will take part tomorrow, at the conclusion of proceedings, in the 1995 Palm Sunday March, as a visible testimony and commitment to the encounter between forces of different humanistic and religious inspiration in the struggle to abolish the death penalty. These forces then, can once again take the debate and the campaign to the United Nations so that the demand for human life no longer be at the disposal of the State and finally become a universal law.