Mission of Marco Pannella in Asia

Cambodia-Vietnam-India, 20-27 December - After the meeting of the General Council of the Nonviolent Radical Party held in Bruxelles from 11 to 13 December, and following the relaunch of the transnational political initiative with the registration of 27 Cambodian parliamentarians, a delegation of Radical Parliamentarians composed of Marco Pannella, Marco Perduca and Matteo Mecacci, is in Asia these days, for a series of high-level meetings. The goal of the mission is to establish the parameters for an international campaign aimed at bringing to world attention the reasons for the failure of negotiations between China and Tibet with regard to the regional autonomous status. On 20 December, the Radical delegation met with the 27 Cambodian Parliamentarians registered in the Nonviolent Radical Party, while as from Tuesday 23 December the delegation will go to Vietnam where they will meet the Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church, the Most Venerable Thich Quan Do in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and will hold unofficial meetings in Hanoi with the government of Vietnam to discuss the Montagnard issue in particular. On 27 December, there will be meetings in Dharamsala, head office of the Tibetan Government in exile, with the Prime Minister Prof. Samdong Rimpoche, with the highest authorities of the Tibetan Parliament, with militants and with young Tibetans. A meeting with the Dalai Lama is in the process of being arranged. (S. Gasparrini)

Ban FGM: an attainable goal

Cairo, 15 December - The Conference “For the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation - Cairo Declaration  +5”, organized by No Peace without Justice and the Egyptian National Council for Children and Motherhood (NCCM) under the patronage of the First Lady Suzanne Mubarak and with the support of the Italian Cooperation for Development and the World Bank, concluded with the adoption of a final document committing over 200 participants coming from 20 Afro-Arab countries concerned with the practice, to organize over the next 12 months a new meeting which would assess the implementation of the recommendations agreed during the conference (second day) as well as all other efforts in confronting the issue of FGM through an integrated approach and coordinated action within the frame of human rights in various countries. The need for a regional and sub-regional approach strongly emerged from the debates, to harmonize existing legislations in different countries hence putting an end to "emigrating mutilations". The differences and sometimes the absence of legislation on FGM resulted in girls being mutilated in neighbouring countries where FGM is not prohibited. At the margins of the conference, Emma Bonino, Vice-President of the Senate and founder of No Peace without Justice declared : "I believe it is fundamental that important legal instruments on FGM are now acquired and in view of the encouraging progress on legislations over the past five years we need to double our efforts. If we succeed in maintaining wide mobilization and political pressure we could obtain a possibility for banning this practice once and for all." (S. Gasparrini)

The Radicals at the European Parliament

Decriminalising homosexuality: the European Commission supports the French initiative
On the initiative of the Alliance for Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), a debate on decriminalising homosexuality worldwide took place on 17 December at the European Parliament in Strasbourg under the French Presidency.

Rama Yada, French State Secretary for Human Rights explained during the debate that France, with support from a majority of European countries presented in the UN Assembly a text for a Resolution decriminalising homosexuality worldwide.

During an intervention in plenary, Marco Cappato Radical MEP expressed the hope that the wide support obtained by the French Presidency would be as successful as the UN approval of the Moratorium on Death Penaly.  The French initiative is fully supported by the ALDE Group and the Nonviolent Radical Party. A positive sign was given in the Assembly by EC Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. The Radicals are now appealing to European institutions and all Member States to firmly reject the maneouvers within the UN of the Vatican in making this initiative fail. (L. Lipparini)

Written questions by Radical MEPs

French initiative at the UN on decriminalising homosexuality
France launched an initiative within the UN on the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality, with support of over 50 States including EUMS. The Holy See reacted through its representative at the UN, Monsignor Celestino Migliore, affirming that "with a political declaration signed by a group of countries, States and international implementing and control mechanisms for Human Rights would be asked to include new categories protected by the discrimination, without taking into account that, if adopted, they would create new and unrelenting discriminations…For example States that do not recognize the union between people of the same sexes as "marriage" will be condemned and put under pressure. The Radical MEPs interrogated the EC asking which initiatives it has undertaken or intends to undertake in order to ensure that the French declaration obtains the widest support from UN Member States? With which non-EU State had it been in contact? What does the EC intend to do to avert the diplomatic action of the Vatican and the 91 totalitatrian or integralist States that foresee sanctions, torture, punishment or even capital execution (in 10 Islamic states) against homosexuals? Does the EC not think that it is urgent to raise this question within the frame of international relations and in intercultural and inter-religious dialogues that the EU maintains with the Vatican and with the representatives of the Catholic religion, and adopt relevant measures  as it would occur with third States?  (L. Lipparini)

On ending guarantees due to oxidation of cellular phones
According to reports in the magazine Altroconsumo, a stripe of hydrosensible material is put in most cellular phones in such a way that it changes color in the presence of humidity. The change in color of such a component is used by firms of cellular phone in declaring the oxidized "terminal"  and therefore  making the guarantee lapse. It seems that this happens whenever one asks for a reparation without even controlling if the damage is provoked by oxidation. According to public information, the stripe reacts in the presence of the minimum humidity, even by human perspiration. The stripe is moreover invisibile to the owner of the cellular phone as it is in a position accessibile only to technicians (and the opening of the terminal on the part on non-authorised persons is another cause that automatically makes the guarantee lapse). The client is bound to trust the firm when it declares the oxidized "terminal". The Radical MEPs asked the EC if it is at least aware of this practice, if it is at least in possession of data on the complaints of consumers with regard to the precipitated end of guarantees of cell phones and if it thinks it should intervene in fixing limits to calibrations of hydrosensible stripes and the eventual incorrect practices of manufacturers. (L. Lipparini)

On the substitution of operational systems of portable computers
Several Italian consumers declared the problem in acquiring portable computers furnished with pre-installed operational systems. In particular, when one decides to substitute the furnished operational system with an HP computer, there have been cases of technical impossibility in di-installing the pre-installed system (Windows Vista) and substitute it with a different one. Restoring disks furnished with the portable computers do not solve the problem and the only solution seems to be, in all its complexities, the substitution of the apparatus, often made impossible by the manufacturer. With reference to the answer already given by the EC in 2007, the Radical MEPs asked if the EC is in possession of data related to the percentage of portables sold with the pre-installed systems and if not, if it intends to gather information on the present situation; if it does not think that, independently of the trade agreements between producers of hardwares and softwares, consumer rights must be guaranteed in renouncing the softwares furnished with the purchase and change it as one pleases and if it intends to take an initiative against the incorrect practices of producers that constrain consumers' choices. (L. Lipparini)

Civil responsibility of judges in Italy
On 13 June 2006, the Court of Justice of the European Community, case C-173/03, considered that the Italian norm on the civil responsibility of judges (and in particular the legislation of Vassalli of 1988, no. 17) is incompatible with community law in such that it does not consent the responsibility of the State for damages caused to individuals and that it derives from a wrong interpretation of community law pronounced by a judge of the Supreme Court. Following the sentence of the Court a normative intervention is necessary to adjust the Italian ruling with the obligations derived from community law. The Radical MEPs asked the EC if it does not think urgent to solicit an action by the Italian Government; if, in the absence of a revision of the legislation in question the Italian State and the Government cannot be sanctioned for the non-fulfilment and violation of community law ex article 226 of the Treaty; if a revision of the Italian ruling is to be hoped for, not only in situations that can be assimilated with those taken in consideration of community judges, but also in situations concerning the application of other internal norms in civic, penal and administrative issues. (L. Lipparini)