A new law on immigration, a new law on LGBT rights, a social-political campaign against discriminating Roma and the legalization of cannabis are among the main campaign issues CILD (the Italian Coalition for Civil Rights and Freedoms) will campaign for. There is no better proof of the real demand for CILD among Italy's civil society than the massive interest surrounding it in the country. The new Italian Human Rights Platform, launched today, October 17, in Rome, was originally initiated by 20 organizations, and that figure quickly rose to 29 before the official launch date. By joining CILD, the organizations hope to be able to strengthen their effectiveness, presenting themselves as a single interlocutor for institutions and the media and to influence the public opinion.
Patrizio Gonnella, president of CILD, argues that only multi-issue human rights groups can successfully tackle the lack of liberties: "Human rights are intrinsically connected to each other. If you are fighting for one liberty and you are giving up another, you have lost everything. From now on, civil society in Italy will be stronger. When you win a single battle without having in mind the whole spectrum of human rights, your victory will inevitably be incomplete. Let's think to our campaign against torture. Hopefully Italy will soon have a new law introducing the crime in the penal code. But the greater exposure to torture of vulnerable subjects, Roma people for instance, will remain a cultural issue that will have to be dealt with."
Andrea Menapace, executive director of CILD, claims that this is the first time in Italy when a great number of civil society organizations dealing with the whole spectrum of human rights joins together and speaks with a single voice to the Italian government and members of the Italian Parliament.
Two discussions with Italian officials will be the prelude to CILD's introduction at the United Nations Human Rights Council, which will issue its review of Italy ten days later, on October 27.
Underpinning its argument in its launch manifesto, CILD states:
Freedom is self-determination. Recognition of one’s identity. Inclusion. Freedom is never a threat to equality. We are all free because we are all equal and different. Freedoms and civil rights are deeply connected. They are interdependent and inseparable. Their promotion and protection can bring along a paradigm shift, contributing to cohesiveness, solidarity, and equality in society. Italy has lived a long period in which the prevailing vocabulary, practice, and political decisions reduced civil freedoms and human rights to occasional episodes, if not public annoyance. But freedom and rights are the foundation of a society that is respectful towards human dignity.
Based on this theoretical premise – which has solid cultural, political, social, and historical grounds – a large number of civil society organizations in Italy have decided to form the Italian Coalition for Civil Rights and Freedoms (CILD). As the first ever experiment in freedom contamination, the coalition aims at boosting freedom’s power of multiplication by intertwining different thematic areas. After all, the same policies and cultural background apply to:
- the paramount issues in the fight against racism and xenophobia;
- in the battle against every form of discrimination based on gender or gender identity;
- in changing the view on immigration and distancing it from crime;
- in expanding citizenship;
- in overcoming prejudice against Roma, Sinti, and traveller people;
- in creating a penal and a penitentiary system that are less selective and more respectful of rights;
- in the struggle against corruption and for transparency in the public administration;
- in the extension of rights and freedoms beyond every possible traditional boundary.
Thanks to the crucial support of Open Society Foundations and Oak Foundation, today the coalition is a new player in the field, drawing its strength from its roots in society, that is the many organizations that in the past decades have tried – often individually, as if alone – to curb our country’s drift towards illiberality and intolerance.
Check the CILD Italia website for more information
