NEWS Italian Senate Establishes Committee to Protect Human Rights

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

The Italian Senate established a committee for the protection of human rights last week. The bill providing for its creation received 260 votes in favor, 0 opposed and 16 abstentions.

The idea of creating a committee in contrast to the resurgence of racism was first suggested by Senator and Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre. The bill establishing the committee was then introduced by a number of MPs including Emma Bonino, historic leader of the Partito Radicale, traditionally very involved in the topic.

The Committee will be formed of 25 members and will promote the protection of human rights “as a pillar of the national legal system, as well as shared patrimony of the international community and humankind”.

“It is necessary to get to work immediately, because the risk for humankind to fall back in dark times, as Hannah Arendt would say, is always around the corner,” Liliana Segre said in a message sent to her fellow senators. “This tool reminds us how the longest decade of the twentieth century that ferried our country through the storm of the unspeakable to the age of rights, is not finished yet”.