European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: New elections and Italian representative in 2023

The Committee of Ministers’ meeting provided for the election of the members of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) in respect of Armenia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal and Romania. Deputies voted in accordance with Article 5.1 of the Convention (rules for election), taking into account the decisions made at previous meetings on the procedure for renewal of membership, and adopted the resolution CM/ResCPT(2023)3. 

Accordingly, Ms. Elisabetta Zamparutti was re-elected as a member of the CPT in respect of Italy. Her new mandate will expire on December 19, 2027.

Ms. Zamparutti is a long-time member of the committee, with years of political experience in the Italian parliament. She is also involved in monitoring prison conditions and the treatment of prisoners, additionally being one of the funders of “Hands off Cain,” an Italian NGO whose main objective is the implementation of the universal moratorium on the death penalty and, more generally, the fight against torture.

European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI): New Italian representative for 2023-2028

The deputies reviewed the nominations of Italy's appointees to serve as ECRI member and alternate member beginning September 14, 2023. Alberto Gambino was appointed the Italian member of the ECRI for the period 2023-2028. 

Prof. Alberto Gambino is a full professor of private law and deputy rector of the European University in Rome and Commissioner of (ECRI) of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. In addition, Mr. Gambino is a member of many national institutions in Italy and head of prestigious scientific journals and editorial boards.

The Council of Europe renewed the Diploma for Protected Areas to the Italian parks of Abruzzo - Lazio - Molise and Maremma, from 2023 to 2032

In its meeting of 14 June 2023, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, following the reports of the Standing Committee of the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Resources, approved with resolutions the renewal of the European Diploma for Protected Areas, awarded to certain European reserves and national parks, including two Italian ones: the Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise National Park, and the Maremma Regional Park, until 2032. 

The Committee appended some recommendations addressed to the state authorities, aimed at maintaining the exemplary management of such areas of exceptional European interest, including, among other things, reinforcing existing monitoring programmes and financial resources, ensuring harmonised hunting regulations in the peripheral protected areas, and drafting a tourism strategy.

The Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention - ETS 104) was adopted in Bern in 1979 and entered into force in 1982. The European Diploma for Protected Areas was established in 1965 to recognise natural and semi-natural areas and landscapes of exceptional European importance for the preservation of biological, geological and landscape diversity and which are managed in an exemplary way.