At the end of January 2026, the Report on the State of Human Rights in Italy was presented to the Italian Chamber of Deputies. It is a collective endeavour undertaken by researchers committed to monitoring the extent to which human rights are respected and upheld within the country. The words of Luigi Manconi, President of the association A Buon Diritto, which periodically produces this analytical instrument for interpreting the present, encapsulate the core message conveyed by the volume: rights must not be regarded as concessions, but as indispensable imperatives inherent to every person.

One section of the volume, edited by Domenico Massano, reflects on the state of the rights of persons with disabilities, focusing on issues summarised by the online journal Superando.it as follows: disability reform; institutionalisation, deinstitutionalisation and independent living; ableism and violence against women with disabilities; accessibility and mobility; and “rights obstructed”. What emerges from Massano’s chapter is the persistence of cultural and material barriers that continue to prevent persons with disabilities from fully exercising their human rights, as affirmed by the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The full text of Massano’s chapter is available at the link provided, and concludes with an appeal for collective engagement “towards the realisation of a society in which the value of each person’s contribution is recognised and in which the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms is guaranteed for all.”