Proposition 51K2865

Proposition de résolution relative à la condamnation à mort de cinq infirmières et d'un médecin en Libye.

General information ¶

Authors

CD&V Pieter De Crem
Ecolo Muriel Gerkens
LE Melchior Wathelet
MR Daniel Bacquelaine, Richard Fournaux
Open Vld Hilde Vautmans
PS | SP Valérie Déom, Véronique Ghenne
Vooruit Dirk Van der Maelen

Submission date

Jan. 25, 2007

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

Libya death penalty resolution of parliament human rights

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA MR FN VB

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

Feb. 8, 2007 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

The registered speakers are Mrs. Deom, Mrs. Vautmans and Mr. and fire.

Mr Fournaux, as the author of the resolution, I propose you to start.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker.

Together with a few colleagues, I submitted to the House a resolution that follows the submission of a petition by the National Federation of Nurses and Nurses whose President, Mr. Dumont, is sitting at the visitors’ tribune and I thank him for his presence.

This association has submitted a petition, with more than 50,000 signatures from people who, mostly, are providers of services in nursing and other services, aimed at supporting the struggle led in Libya by five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who are purely and simply trying to face a real injustice, namely their death sentence by the Libyan judicial authorities.

Most democratic countries have expressed themselves on this subject to denounce the conditions under which justice has been rendered in this – I believe I can say it – totally anti-democratic country. In addition, many prominent officials in the judiciary have been concerned about the conditions under which judicial decisions had been made.

Beyond the fact that in this democratic assembly, we are practically all against the death penalty, it is up to us to defend those who are professionally dedicated and more ⁇ from around the world to help those who need it most.

I would like to thank the members of my group and its Chairman, Mr. Bacquelaine, but also all the democratic groups in this assembly have well wanted to counter-sign this resolution.

I am very proud to count among us today, in addition to the President of the National Federation of Nurses and Nurses of this country, His Excellency the Ambassador of Bulgaria, but also a colleague Bulgarian MEP, who came to attend the vote of this Chamber to support this resolution. I invite you to applaud them.

(The applause )

It is our responsibility as Democrats to worry about what is happening in the world and to defend the most just causes.

In any case, I feel strong to obtain your massive support for this resolution, how useful it is for democracy in the world.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, colleagues, as liberals, we are very pleased that our Parliament today will adopt this resolution, which condemns the death sentence of five nurses and a doctor in Libya.

Following the statements of Kofi Annan, and backed by a petition of more than 40,000 Belgian nurses, we today also give a very important signal to the Libyan authorities. As liberals – you shouldn’t be surprised – we are radical against the death penalty. In Europe, the death penalty is no longer used as an effective punishment. In countries such as the United States, China and – as this resolution shows – Libya, people are still regularly killed, sometimes even innocent people, like here. Colleagues, we must not allow this punishment, for the sake of culture or traditions. At every meeting with these countries, we must continue to strive for the abolition of the death penalty.

I would like to give you three reasons for this.

First, the death penalty is especially cruel, because after a, often long, waiting period, a person, a human being, an equal is skillfully killed. The principle “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” could lead to terrible punishments when applied to all crimes. If the first murder is a crime, why is the second not? The pain of the relatives will be equally great. Without one suffering becoming less, we create new suffering. Is that fair?

Second, the death penalty can never be abolished. It often happens that convicted persons are proved innocent. This can sometimes be demonstrated thanks to the evolving techniques. When you are in prison, you can still be released. When someone has been put to death, a correction is impossible. Or maybe they just had bad luck?

Finally, one sometimes calls for the death penalty for its preventive power. “A person who can be sentenced to death will think twice before committing a crime.”The comparison of crime rates in countries with and without the death penalty does not support that argument. When people want to commit a criminal act, only the package works preventively and not so much the thought of punishment.

Mr. Speaker, my very first bill here in the House concerned the effective abolition of the death penalty in our country. I see here a few colleagues with whom I have submitted this bill together. The abolition of the death penalty in our Constitution was the very first proposal I submitted here. It was also adopted in Parliament.

Today I would like to ask you all to reuse our power and influence to persuade others, with reasonable arguments, not to kill these people.

This is not the first time that Parliament is concerned about the unjust fate of the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor. Indeed, about two months ago, I was already asking the Minister of Foreign Affairs about the capacity of Belgium to respond to this unfair death sentence. Followed this draft resolution so that the calvary that these five Bulgarian nurses and this Palestinian doctor have been living for eight years is considered by all as unacceptable.

We repeat and we have repeated in this proposal for a resolution, we are deeply shocked by the attitude of the Libyan justice which, by condemning innocent people to death under a false pretext, has demonstrated its iniquity and the political instrumentalization of which it is the object. We are even more shocked to see today Libya playing cards on the table demanding, in exchange for these six innocent people, a financial compensation and the release of a prisoner involved in the 1988 Lockerbie attack.

Our government, like all democratic governments, must act. With this draft resolution, we ask him to do everything in his power so that Belgium but also the European Union bring the Libyan authorities to organize, in collaboration with international experts, a new trial that is fair, fair and transparent, so that the calvary of these six persons finally ends and the injustice of which they are victims ends.