Chiara R.

EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO BE

Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states that: «Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. [..]» and, reading this article, I immediately thought about what happened in Italy last month.

Explaining in a nutshell, Alessandro Zan, exponent of the LGBT community, proposed a draft law with the aim of protecting people who are victims of violence and discrimination for reasons of gender, sex, disability or sexual orientation. Therefore, this draft law, called DDL Zan, calls for the establishment of criminal offences and a national day against discrimination, as well as the allocation of money to promote initiatives to combat these problems.

Having said that, it’s not a secret that discriminatory aggressions are not a rare thing, for this reason Zan believes that there’s a need for regulatory intervention. However, many believe that the Italian constitutional and regulatory system already condemns violence. In fact, Article 3 of the Constitution says that all citizens are equal before the law, without regard to sex, race, language, religion, political opinions, personal and social conditions, etc. Nevertheless, the law still does not sanction discrimination against homosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals and so on.

Even the Vatican has openly declared itself against the bill, asking informally to review the text because “it violates some articles of the Concordato’s agreement”. In other words, the Vatican is afraid that DDL Zan will jeopardise freedom of speech and thought, as it could cause discrimination against the Catholic community.

Eventually, on 27th October the Italian Senate has abolished the DDL Zan, despite the country being laic and despite the fact that the European Parliament has intervened several times calling on the Member States to adopt anti-discrimination legislation in various fields, including discrimination against the LGBT community. Then, according to me, it’s unthinkable that in the 21st century there’s still a fight against the lack of protection and rights, after almost one hundred years since the official Declaration of Human Rights.

Here you can read some heartbreaking examples of this article's violations:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2021/oct/19/i-have-accepted-my-fate-the-hidden-abuse-in-ugandas-lgbt-community-in-pictures