Official Resolution of Mourning, Honouring, and Remembrance
PREAMBLE
A sad incident took place on 19 May this year marked by the passing away of Mr. Marco Pannella, a former member of the European Parliament as well as of the national parliament of Italy. He was 86 years old at the time of his passing away. Mr. Marco Pannella was born on 2 May 1930 in Teramo, the son of an Italian father named Leonardo Pannella and a Swiss mother named Estachon Andree. He attended the Julius Caesar School in Rome and later graduated in law from the University of Urbino.
He founded a political party called the Radical Party of Italy in 1955 and rapidly grew in popularity. From the 1960s to the 1990s, he was one of the most prominent political figures in Italy. He gained strong support and thereby majority approval for his struggles on numerous tough issues, including especially against the practice of abortion, life imprisonment, hunting of wild lives, and so on. In 2011, he led movements to struggle on issues such as the elimination of nuclear weapons. Although 81 years old at that time, he staged a hunger strike which lasted for three months, protesting against severe overcrowding in Italian jails. The unusual method he adopted for that struggle won him high compliments of outstanding significance in his life.
The late Mr. Marco Pannella was elected numerous times as a member of the Italian parliament over the period from 1976 to 1992. Likewise, over the period from 1979 to 2004, he won election four times to the European Parliament.
The late Mr. Marco Pannella was a strong supporter of the just struggle of the Tibetan people. The fact that the Fifth World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet could be held in the Italian capital Rome owed especially to the efforts made by him. In particular, during the periods he served as a member of the European Parliament, he and his political party gave strong support to the setting up there of the Tibet Inter Group, a Tibet support group within the parliament constituted by its members. He was also a person with an especially close friendship with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. And in March this year, when he had taken ill, His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote a message, expressing concern over his health and wishes for his speedy recovery. The letter said: “Mr. Marco Panella has been one of my closest personal friends. He was also a staunch supporter of the Tibetan people.” And His Holiness the Dalai Lama also said that he was extremely saddened to hear the news about Mr. Marco Panella’s passing away.
The late Mr. Marco Pannella was a distinguished Italian political figure who fought for civil rights and for a just and non-violent global order.
RESOLUTION
The Tibetan Parliament in Exile expresses homage and praise to the late Mr. Marco Panella for his outstanding deeds and accomplishments. His passing away was a loss to the Italian people as a whole as well as to their government. On behalf of the people remaining in Tibet and those living in exile, this parliament offers to the people and government of Italy, as well especially as to his family members and close associates heartfelt condolences . The Tibetan Parliament in Exile also ardently prays that the wishes and aspirations of the late Mr Marco Panella which have remained to be fulfilled may be seen carried forward and bear the fruits of noble successes. The Tibetan Parliament in Exile is unanimous in adopting this resolution on this day of 1 June 2016.
The above resolution was adopted by the 16th Tibetan Parliament in Exile during its first session on this day of 1 June 2016.