TNAG-0559-FCO40-654-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-othe-1975 — Page 108

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

International Association of Democratic Lawyers International Confederation of Free Trade Unions International Council of Jewish Women

International Council of Social Democratic Women

International Council of Women

International Federation of Free Journalists

International Federation of Human Rights

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International Federation of Women Lawyers

International League for the Rights of Man

International Movement for Fraternal Union among Races and

Peoples

International Peace Bureau

International Social Service

International Youth and Student Movement for the United

Nations

Pax Romana

Womens International League for Peace and Freedom

Womens International Zionist Organization

World Assembly of Youth

World Confederation of Labour

World Federation of United Nations Associations

World Jewish Congress

World Muslim Congress

World Student Christian Federation

Meanwhile, at its 58th session, held April-May 1975 in New York, the UN Economic and Social Council reaffirmed its earlier position on the "desirability" of abolishing the death penalty.

On 23 April 1975 the 27th session of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe overwhelmingly rejected a request by its Legal Affairs Committee that the question of capital punishment be dropped from the committee's agenda. The committee's request had been made on 23 January 1975 and was challenged the same day in an Amnesty International news release expressing Al's "dismay” and describing Secretary General Martin Ennals as "surprised and disappointed that a motion which ultimately affects the lives and human rights of people in all member countries of the Council of Europe should have been dropped so casually".

The motion in question, drafted in consultation with AI, had been submitted to the assembly by 11 European parliamentarians in May 1973. It calls upon "those members of the Council of Europe that retain capital punishment for certain crimes to abolish it as a legal sanction". National sections took action to persuade parliamentarians from their countries to vote in the assembly to retain the item on its agenda.

A recent report prepared by the UN shows that, over the past few years, states have ignored the official position of the General Assembly: namely, that it is desirable to abolish the death penalty in all countries, that it should not be introduced for crimes to which it does not already apply, that the crimes to which

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