Foreword
The 10th of December 2007, upon invitation of the Interdepartmental Centre on Human Rights and the Rights of Peoples of the University of Padua, the Assembly of the Region of Veneto moved from Venice to Padua to hold a formal extraordinary session for the opening of both the Year devoted to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.
The session took place in the Aula Magna «Galileo Galilei» of the University with the attendance of civil and religious authorities and of hundreds students.
The formal session started after the welcome address by Rector Vincenzo Milanesi.
The President of the Regional Assembly, Marino Finozzi, invited the Director of the Human Rights Centre, Antonio Papisca, and the Representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Gianni Magazzeni, to offer key-note speeches, the texts of which are published in the present issue of the review.
The Heads of all Political Groups took the floor to express their views on a draft resolution. The last speaker before voting was the Vice-President of the Assembly, Carlo Alberto Tesserin. Resolution n. 40 passed unanimously. The text, in both Italian and English, is published in the present issue.