Tag: Italy

On 30 July, Roberto Rampi, Member of the Italian Senate, together with Riccardo Magi and Mauro Del Barba, Members of the Chamber of Deputies, sent a letter to Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Italy, H.E. Sembayev Yerbolat, demanding an online meeting with political prisoner Bekizhan Mendygaziev. In the letter the Italian representatives have expressed their concern for […]

On 25 November 2020, Italian Senator and Member of the Special Commission on Human Rights, Emma Bonino, submitted a written question (WQ) to Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi di Maio. The WQ is particularly focused on the case of the political killing of Zhanbolat Agadil and the request for individual sanctions on violators of human rights in Kazakhstan.

On 25 November 2020, 6 members of the Italian Parliament addressed President Tokayev with a letter, expressing their deep concern about the worrying state of fundamental freedoms in Kazakhstan; the mass repression puts Kazakhstan’s international credibility and its intention of becoming a ‘listening state’ (i.e. open to dialogue with civil society) at stake right before its parliamentary election.

Yesterday, 3 November 2020, Vitaly Markiv, a Ukrainian former National Guard and holder of an Italian passport, was found “not guilty” of the charge of murder of Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli. The reporter and his translator, Andrei Mironov, tragically died as a result of a mortar shelling in Sloviansk on 24 May 2014. At that time, the conflict zone was controlled by Russia-backed separatists.

The Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) and Federazione Italiana Diritti Umani (FIDU) are back on track after the lockdown with a real-life press conference “The Authoritarian Epidemic: Safeguarding Human Rights in Times of COVID-19”. The conference was held on 29 July 2020, at Sala Caduti di Nassirya of the Italian Senate, in Rome, Italy.

We have always strived to fight against mis- and disinformation and thus counter threats to the proper functioning of democracies, including the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. For this reason we have supported the making of “The Wrong Place”, a documentary on the so-called Markiv Case, in which two journalists were killed in Donbas in 2014.

In response to the arrival of (inappropriate) medical supplies from Moscow to the Pratica di Mare military airport, Italy, as well as of military means and high-ranking officers affiliated to the Russian Ministry of Defence to cope with the #COVID19 pandemic (March 22, 2020), ODF, together with other fifteen non-governmental organisations, promoted a letter of appeal addressed to Italy’s PM Giuseppe Conte.

On February 6-7, 2020, a delegation of the Open Dialogue Foundation went on a two-days mission to Rome with the aim to relaunch the draft bill for an Italian Magnitsky Law, following a series of events in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate on the matter

Members of the Italian Senate and the Italian Chamber of Deputies forwarded a letter to the Belgian Prime Minister, demonstrating their concern and outrage with the situation faced by Jardemalie in Belgium.

On Thursday 28 March, 2019, ODF, FIDU, the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT) and the EU–Russian Expert Group on Combating Transborder Corruption organised an international conference on the application of the Magnitsky law, at the premises of the Italian Senate.

On Thursday 28 March, 2019, FIDU, ODF, the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT) and the EU–Russian Expert Group on Combating Transborder Corruption organised an international conference on the application of the Magnitsky law, at the premises of the Italian Senate.

On December 22, Mr Erasmo Palazzotto, Vice-Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, signed an appeal addressed to the Secretary General of INTERPOL and to the Chairperson of the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files.

Between Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 July, 2017, the Open Dialogue Foundation met in Rome with representatives of NGOs and members of the Italian Senate and Chamber of Deputies. The 2-days visit was an opportunity to discuss individual cases of victims of abusive Red Notices.

In a recent interview conducted by Domenico Letizia for Cronache di Napoli, an Italian newspaper, Anna Koj, head of the Open Dialog’s EU Office, spoke about the Foundation’s work in promoting democracy and the rule of law in the post-Soviet states.

Representatives of the Foundation follow and attend the most important sessions and meetings of the international organizations and institutions in Brussels, Strasbourg, Vienna and Geneva.