The University of Padua at the March for Peace and Fraternity PerugiAssisi 2025

The University of Padua, which has always been present at the Perugia-Assisi March, will participate again this year with two buses organized by the University Center for Human Rights “Antonio Papisca,” which will carry a delegation of over 100 people composed of teachers, technical and administrative staff, volunteers in civil service, and a significant group of students enrolled in various courses of study, including political science, international relations, human rights, but also law, biology, medicine, mathematics, veterinary medicine, philosophy, DAMS, education science, and engineering.

Alongside the University of Padua, numerous Italian universities will participate, including Brescia, Cagliari, Messina, Napoli L'Orientale, Parma, Perugia Stranieri, Pisa, Roma Tre, Sapienza, Siena, Siena Stranieri, Torino, Tor Vergata, Urbino, Politecnico di Torino, all members of RUniPace, the Network of Italian Universities for Peace promoted by the Conference of Italian University Rectors.

The March will be preceded by four days of activities in which participants will discuss and seek to build awareness, a culture, and a politic of peace through four major meetings: the UN Assembly of Peoples, the Assembly of PhD Students in Peace Studies, the National Meeting of Peace Schools, and the National Assembly of Local Authorities for Peace and Human Rights.

With the support of the Human Rights Center and the city of Padova, Monicah Nyareng Malith (South Sudan) and Akeya Dadi (Ethiopia), two young activists for justice and peace, will participate in the UN Assembly of Peoples.

From the highest hill in Assisi, at the end of the March, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, will speak, among others.

The March for Peace and Fraternity was first organized in 1961 by Aldo Capitini together with writers Giovanni Arpino, Gianni Rodari, Italo Calvino, Guido Piovene, philosopher Norberto Bobbio, economist and federalist Ernesto Rossi, and painter Renato Guttuso. It was a historic moment full of uncertainty for the future and peaceful coexistence in the world. There was the war in Algeria, the Suez crisis and the war in the Middle East, the American involvement in Vietnam, and the creation of the Berlin Wall. International tension was growing, and the threat of nuclear war loomed in the background.

Today, we find ourselves in a situation that is perhaps even more serious. The world is devastated by individualism, selfishness, and indifference that kills and allows killing. By ruthless and bloody wars of all kinds that fiercely target children, women, the sick, and the elderly. By a mad rush to rearm and by increasingly marked signs of a “third world war.” Impunity and complicity with war crimes and crimes against humanity are rampant. International human rights and peace law are buried under the rubble of Gaza, Kiev, Aleppo, Khartoum, and the Kivu region.

With the PerugiAssisi March, on a planet in flames, we want to react with “a new dream of fraternity and social friendship,” to push in a different direction and towards a different world, to shout that fraternity is the alternative to war.

To legitimize action within and beyond national borders to promote and defend human rights and peace under the United Nations Charter and Article 1 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which states: 

Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels.

Some reasons given by students who will be participating in the initiative.

Benedetta: “Participating in the UN People's Assembly and the March is a duty and a responsibility for me. I feel that peace is built on the daily commitment of individuals who come together for the sake of humanity as a whole.”

Ylli: “Coming from Kosovo, I know the value of peace and freedom well, so I think now is my time to march alongside the people who have done so much for my country in the past. For human rights, for peace, and for freedom!”

Giulia: “I believe that, with everything that is happening to people all over the world, an initiative like this is really important for promoting peace.”

For information and contacts:

University Human Rights Centre "Antonio Papisca - https://unipd-centrodirittiumani.it/en