|
Human
rights and environmental organisations across Europe, including within the framework of the Observatory (FIDH-OMCT), express grave concern over Italy’s draft bill
1236 (formerly 1660) on security, currently under discussion in the
Senate. The bill poses significant threats to the rights of freedom of
expression, assembly, and protest, with many Italian civil rights groups
labeling it as the most severe assault on protest freedoms in decades.
Europe, December 12, 2024
We, the undersigning organisations, groups and collectives working on
human rights, climate justice and environment and in support of
environmental rights defenders in Europe hereby express our concern
about the draft bill 1236 (ex 1660) on security currently in discussion
at the Italian Senate. Overall, the decree marks a worrying further
restriction to the legitimate rights of freedom of expression,
assembly and protest, to the extent that many Italian civil rights and
human rights organisations label it as the most serious attack to the
freedom of protest ever waged in recent decades.
We are concerned about the impact of certain prescriptions on the
right of climate and environmental movements and organisations to carry
out demonstrations and protests as recognised by international human
rights standards and conventions. Particularly worrying is the
introduction of criminal offense for human roadblocks that
would accompany administrative penalties. Specific aggravating
circumstances are also envisaged in cases where the roadblock is carried
out by more than one person, with prison sentences that would range
from six months to two years.
This trend is not limited to Italy, as we can record in our work in
support of the right to protest and defend the environment in various
European countries. It is the result of a progressive restriction of
civic space and fundamental rights that goes hand in hand with the
weakening of the rule of law and the disregard, if not violation, of
international standards and conventions by a growing number of
governments around the world.
We wish to recall that the issue of the relationship between the
activities and initiatives of climate justice movements and the
legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of
association was addressed by, among others, a specific communication by
the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of association and
assembly. The Special Rapporteur refers to the UN Human Rights Council’s
opinion
according to which “private actors and society at large are expected to
accept some form of limitation on their activities in the exercise of
this right.
Any form of punishment provided for ‘traffic interruption’ or other
public protest activities should be clearly defined to ensure respect
for human rights and to prevent unjust forms of interference with the
right to freedom of peaceful assembly.” In fact, roadblocks, as a mode
of exercising the right of assembly, should be considered as “legitimate
use of public space”, equally with other modes of its use, such as the
movement of vehicles or people or the conduct of economic activities.
Therefore, a certain level of “disruption of ordinary life caused by
assemblies, including temporary disruption of traffic” should be
tolerated, unless it entails disproportionate consequences or imminent
danger to public safety. Further concerns were expressed by the Special Rapporteur on Environmental Rights Defenders under the Aarhus Convention Michel Forst in 2024.
Therefore, organisers of such demonstrations should have the freedom
to choose, without interference from state authorities, what may be the
most effective ways to get their message across. In summary,
roadblocking is a legitimate form of protest, and states should
therefore protect the necessary spaces of agency for civil disobedience
and nonviolent direct action campaigns. No restrictions should be
imposed on these forms of peaceful protest, and utmost caution should be
exercised in deciding about arrests, charges, preventive detentions,
convictions or imposition of fines against climate activists engaged in
such actions.
It should also be noted that under a separate bill approved earlier
by the Italian Parliament, activists that hold nonviolent demonstrative
actions in museums or by monuments would be subject to increased fines
and possible detention.
The repressive apparatus envisaged in the Security Decree is not
limited to the “criminalisation” of nonviolent civil disobedience
practices , but affects also communities and movements resisting
unnecessary and imposed large-scale infrastructures. In fact, another
provision proposed in the Security Decree introduces aggravating
circumstances (with the possibility of a prison sentence of up to 20
years) ) for the crimes of resistance and violence to a public official
if the same are committed “in order to prevent the construction of a
public work or strategic infrastructure.”
Finally, we wish to express our strong condemnation of the evident
targeting of specific social groups by the proposed draft bill which
would undermine a wide spectrum of fundamental rights. As a matter of
fact, this legislation would further criminalise and marginalise
vulnerable communities, including immigrants, beggars, the homeless,
Roma people, those residing in squats, and detainees.
In the light of the above we express our support and solidarity to
the Italian organisations, networks and movements that are converging on
a common platform to reassert the fundamental rights to freedom of
expression, association and protest as well as to protect and defend the
environment and to mobilise for climate and social justice.
|
