The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emma Bonino, at the Senate during the presentation of the Italian Yearbook of Human Rights 2013

Rome, Thursday 19th September 2013

In the crowded Sala Zuccari of the Italian Senate, the Minister Emma Bonino stressed her steady commitment for the promotion and the fullfilment of human rights. She underlined the usefulness of the Yearbook as a scientific tool for the knowledge of such a delicate subject which affects the people's vital needs. In her broad speech, the Minister also stressed the need to strengthen the cooperation between the Government and the Human Rights Commission of the Senate and reminded the audience that, after months of uncertainities caused by the spending review, the Inter-ministerial Committee for Human Rights has been re-established within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In his introduction, the President of the Human Rights Commission of the Senate, Luigi Manconi, affirmed that the Italian Yearbook of Human Rights is a most precious work, not just as an instrument of inquiry but also as a tool for possible political action, which constitutes an indispensable background for the action of the Commission. Senator Manconi also added that the human rights laboratory of the University of Padua is one of the intellectual realities with possible public and institutional and therefore political consequences, in the most noble meaning of political, which is really indispensable for our country, where the level of human rights protection presents a lot of contradictions. In his broad conclusions, Senator Manconi recalled the need to establish a human rights-based European citizenship that make reference to a “European ius soli”, an idea presented in the Yearbook.

The following personalities, among others, attended the presentation of the Yearbook: the Senators Silvana Amati, Enrico Cappelletti, Gianpiero Dalla Zuanna, Paola De Pin; Ambassador Vinicio Mati, President of the Interministerial Committee for human rights of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Professors of international law Umberto Leanza, vice-chair of the Italian Society for the International Organisation (SIOI), Massimo Panebianco e Sergio Marchisio; Francesco Compagnoni, former Dean of the Pontificia Università Angelicum; Barbara Terenzi, spokesperson of the Comitato italiano per la promozione dei diritti umani; Patrizio Gonnella, President of “Antigone”; Flavio Lotti, Director of the National Coordinating Body of Local Authorities for Peace and Human Rights; Simonetta Fichelli, Supervisor of the Programme “Citizenship and Constitution” of the Ministry of University and Research; Mauro Palma, President of the Commission on the overcrowding of detention institutes; Elisabetta Leonardi, Save the Children; Raffaele Iaria, Fondazione Migrantes; Mohamed Nour Dachan, Emeritus President of the Union of Italian Islamic Communities (UCOII); Simonetta Paganini, Supervisor of the Decentralised Cooperation Department of the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI); Sophia Kartsivadze, Embassy of Georgia in Italy.

Programme

Sala Zuccari, Senato della Repubblica, Palazzo Giustiniani
Via della Dogana Vecchia, 29

Luigi Manconi
President of the Special Commission for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights of the Italian Senate

Marco Mascia
Director of the University Human Rights Centre, University of Padova

Antonio Papisca
Director of the Italian Yearbook of Human Rights, University of Padova

Speech by Emma Bonino, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Brief presentations by the members of the Research and Editorial Committee of the Italian Yearbook of Human Rights: Andrea Cofelice, Pietro de Perini, Claudia Pividori

The participation of the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emma Bonino, is expected.

Debate

The Italian Yearbook of Human Rights 2013 (Marsilio Editori/Peter Lang) is edited by the University Human Rights Centre of the University of Padua.

Media Partner: oltreradio.it

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