PALERMO (ITALPRESS) – A career in the service of human rights and the protection of the most vulnerable: Mauro Palma, former president of the National Guarantor of the Rights of Private Persons of Personal Freedom, received from the University of Palermo the doctorate of honorary research in ‘Human Rights: Evolution, Protection and Limits’.
At the ceremony, held in the Magna Hall of Palazzo Steri, about 60 students from three secondary schools participated: the classic high school Umberto and Garibaldi and the scientific Cannizzaro. Palma’s career was marked by an unceasing commitment to respect for rights since 1975 when, following the approval of the penitentiary reform, he formed together with some jurists and intellectuals the Documentation Centre on emergency legislation, focused on the study of legislative changes and practice in judicial proceedings against members of armed groups or persons accused of support to such organizations; in 1985 he would later founded the bi-monthly journal Antigone (foundation). Other positions held include that of president of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture of the Council of Europe (2007-2011), president of the European Council for Criminal Cooperation (2013-2015), member of the Group of Experts in charge of assisting the European Commission for the revision of the Regulation on the control of trade of certain goods that could be used for the death penalty or for torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment (2012-2014), president of the Commission for The last function covered (2016-2024), on the appointment of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, is that of president of the National Guarantor of the rights of private persons of personal freedom: in this capacity Palma focused attention not only on prisons and child institutions, but also on detention of migrants, forced repatriations, mandatory health treatments, security rooms of law enforcement forces and residences for persons with disabilities.
“I am absolutely honored to receive this recognition: I try to interpret it as if it were not so much for my person, as for all institutional and associative realities that I have contributed to build over the years”, says Palma, who then dwells on the title of his lectio magistralis at Palazzo Steri: Words cheating. “Often – he adds – we use words that seem to soften the situations: there is no provision that does not at first have a premise that says that respects the human rights of all people, but if we go to see in the content and application of the norms these words were betrayed; sometimes perhaps we had to be careful about the words themselves, because being a little generic they then had the possibility to betray the intention of those who had written them.”.
The choice of conferring such recognition to the former Inmates Guarantee, explains the rector of the University of Palermo Massimo Midiri, “is linked to the great experience of a figure that has committed all life to respect for human rights: its scientific production, its work activity and its teachings have always had as a guiding thread respect for the rights, exactly what the athenaeus is trying to do from a few years also through the action of specialized centers This doctorate is located in the broader context of a path that we are all doing together, with our University which is at the centre of cultural debate on rights and inclusion”.
– photo xd8/Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
