School children and climate activists stage civil disobedience protests

Peaceful Assembly

School children protest over school closures

Twelve-year-old Anita Iacovelli from the Northern Italian city of Turin began staging solo protests against the closure of schools. Since 6th November 2020, the teenager has sat outside her school doing her work on a tablet computer, with a handwritten poster that reads “Learning at school is our right”. What started off as a lone protest has gained traction across Italy. Iacovelli says that distance learning has been challenging for students. Her cause has been taken up by Priorità alla Scuola (Priority to School), made up of teachers and parents that fights for a better education system. Protests have now become known as ‘Schools for Future’, inspired by the ‘Fridays for Future’ movement.

Restaurants show “civil disobedience”

On 15th January 2020 Around 50,000 restaurants in Italy defied the government’s COVID-19 measures, with many staying open and serving customers, despite restrictions. Restaurant owners say they are struggling to make ends meet and question why other sectors have been allowed to operate while they are only allowed to open for take aways. The campaign was shared on social media under the hashtag #IoApro (I open).

Attempts to repress climate protesters

Climate action group Extinction Rebellion (XR) Italia launched a crowdfunding campaign in November 2020 to fund the massive fines issued by police and legal procedures to combat these, amounting to approximately 20,000 Euros, in response to protests staged months earlier.

On 18th September 2020, eight activists in an act of civil disobedience climbed the columns of the gate in Piazza Castello and chained themselves to the gate in an attempt to get government officials to come and address them. They also lit eight small coloured smoke bombs. Weeks later the activists received complaints filed by police for “Dangerous ignitions and explosions" and for Non-compliance with the Authority's provisions” as they failed to retreat from the gate when asked to do so.

From 8th to 10th October 2020, in another form of protest, activists guarded one of the entrance gates of the Eni building in Rome for over 50 hours. More than a hundred people slept outdoors for two nights, some of them chained, which limited their movements. Weeks later activists received fines of between 280 and 400 Euros for “failure to respect social distancing". However, XR maintains that they had always ensured social distancing since the beginning of the pandemic. In a statement the group said:

“Extinction Rebellion considers that in both cases the intention was to use spurious crimes and social distancing as an excuse to repress a young, rebellious movement that emphasises the real crisis present at this moment: the climate and ecological one.”

Calls to bring back Patrick George Zaki

On 5th January 2021 Amnesty International together with the municipalities of Novara and Bologna organised a sit-in to bring attention to the case of Patrick George Zaki, a student and human rights activist who has been detained in Egypt since February 2020 (see previous monitor updates). The participants in the demonstration called upon the minister of foreign affairs to fulfil his promise to bring Zaki back to Italy. Amnesty Italy states that “Patrick George Zaki is a prisoner of conscience held solely for his human rights work and political views expressed on social media.”