Name: Associazione 21 luglio Onlus
Legal status: Non-profit organisation, registered as an organisation carrying out activities in the field of antidiscrimination.
President: Mr. Paolo Stasolla
Address: Via Bassano del Grappa, 24 – 00195 Rome
Telephone: (+39) 06 64491242 | Email: segreteria@21luglio.org | Website: www.carlodojmi.it/21lugliogantry
– MISSION –
The mission of Associazione 21 luglio is the promotion of the rights of the Roma and Sinti communities in Italy, mainly through the protection of children’s rights and the fight against any form of discrimination and intolerance.
In order to maintain fair judgments and freedom of expression, Associazione 21 luglio cannot access to funding provided by Italian public institutions.
– RESEARCHES –
- Report Rom(a) Underground, presented on 19 February 2013 at Roma Tre University, Faculty of Architecture. The research analyzes the policies carried out by the Municipality of Rome in the last 3 years within the “Nomad Plan”, focussing on the consequences on the lives of children living in condition of “housing emergency”.
- Report Diritti Rubati (Stolen Rights), presented on 17 September 2012 at Roma Tre University, Faculty of Architecture. The research aims at analyzing the life conditions of Roma minors and their families in the “equipped village” in via della Cesarina in Rome.
- Report Lavoro Sporco (Dirty Job), presented on 16 May 2012 at Sala FP CGIL Roma e Lazio. The research aims at evaluating the policies of work inclusion implemented by the Municipality of Rome between 2010 and 2011, addressed to the Roma communities present in some settlements in Rome. It tries to understand the projects costs, their actual development, to show their consequences and their incisiveness on the lives of those who participated.
- Report Anime Smarrite (Lost Souls), presented on 16 February 2012 at Roma Tre University, Faculty of Educational Sciences. The research analyses the impact of evictions policy in Rome on the psychophysical health of Roma minors. A case study is analyzed, regarding minors and families involved in the eviction of the camp Casilino 900.
- Report Linea 40. Lo scuolabus per soli bambini rom (Line 40. The school bus for Roma children), presented on 14 October 2011 at the UNICEF Auditorium in Rome. The research analyzed the school course of 55 Roma children during the school year 2010/2011. The children were from the “authorized village” Via di Salone and made use of the service of Line 40. The research found serious violations of the right to schooling and education of Roma children.
- Report La Casa di Carta (The House of Paper), presented on 30 May 2011 at Roma Tre University, Faculty of Architecture. The research documented the living conditions of Roma families and children in the “Roma accommodation centre” in Via Salaria, 971 presenting a detailed record on various human rights violations occurred within the structure, inaccessible to outside visitors.
- Report Casilino 900. Parole e immagini di una diaspora senza diritti (Casilino 900. Words and images of a diaspora without rights), presented on 15 February 2011 at the UNICEF Auditorium in Rome. Exactly one year after the removal of the historical camp Casilino 900, defined by local authorities an “act of humanity”, Associazione 21 luglio submitted a detailed research on the history of the informal camp and on modalities in which forced evictions were carried out, recognizing serious violations of children’s rights.
- Report Esclusi e ammassati (Excluded and piled), presented on 20 November 2010 at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. The research, presented on the anniversary of the “New York Convention”, aimed at investigating the impact of the “Nomad Plan” of the Commune of Rome on Roma children. The report specifically focused on children in the equipped village “Via di Salone”, defined by the local authorities the “model gypsy camp” of Rome.
– REPORTS FOR THE UNITED NATIONS –
- September 2012: Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child of a report about “Roma minors and the right to education” for the Day of General Discussion “The Rights of All Children in the Context of International Migration, to be held on 28 September 2012.
- August 2012: Associazione 21 luglio together with 8 organizations submitted to the Committee on the Elimination on Racial Discrimination a document in view of the thematic discussion on racist hate speech which took place on 28 August 2012 during its 81st session.
- January 2012: In partnership with the ERRC (European Roma Rights Centre), Associazione 21 luglio prepared a Parallel Report for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, to be submitted at the 80th Session, in March 2012.
- January 2012: Associazione 21 luglio prepared a Memorandum addressed to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Title of the Memorandum: “Violation by Italian authorities of national and international regulations and the basic rights of Roma and Sinti communities with regard to procedures for requesting international protection and gathering fingerprints and photographic data in the city of Rome”.
- July 2011: In partnership with the ERRC (European Roma Rights Centre), Associazione 21 luglio conducted a study on Roma children and women submitted at the 58th Session of the United Nations in Geneva in September 2011.
– PROJECTS –
Project “Dancing with life” (2013)
The project has the purpose of building citizenship, by promoting the conditions for Roma children to overcome the barriers of exclusion and marginality. This objective will be pursued by helping a group of Roma minors to recover their identity through arts and dancing; by facilitating their school integration; by promoting social inclusion with non Roma peers; by sensitizing teachers to remove stereotypes and prejudices. Co-funded by Alta Mane Foundation Italy.
Italian Roma Right Project 2 (2013)
This project aims at: fostering the effective implementation of the “National Strategy for the Inclusion of Roma, Sinti and Caminanti” at local level; promoting the participation of trained Roma activists in advocacy and awareness raising activities on the segregative and discriminatory policies carried out by the Municipality of Roma regarding the Roma and Sinti communities. It is funded by the Open Society Institute.
“Mario Project: Joint action to protect Central and South Eastern European migrant children from abuse, exploitation and trafficking in Europe” (2013-2014)
The project has the purpose of protecting street children, with a focus on those coming from Central and South Eastern European migrant children from abuse, exploitation and trafficking. Co-financed by the European Commission in the frame of the Daphne III programme and by the Oak Foundation.
Project “White Paper on the conditions of Roma minors in Italy” (2013)
This project aims at: a) collecting accurate qualitative and quantitative data about the social, health and cultural conditions of Roma minors present in formal and informal Italian settlements; b) collecting and transferring best practices; c) proposing guidelines, aiming at implementing policies in line with human rights and children’s rights. It is funded by Tavola Valdese.
Project “Roma hate speech observatory” (2012-2013)
The project aims at protecting minorities, focusing particularly on Roma and Sinti communities, from discriminatory and race-hate attitudes. The Osservatorio constantly monitors local and national newspapers, blogs and websites, with the task to: a) monitor and report interviews, political meetings, and declarations which might result as incitement to racial hate or discrimination; b) undertake corrective actions and eventually legal actions in protection of minorities, particularly Roma and Sinti. The project will last 13 months. It is funded by the Open Society Institute.
Operating grant (2012-2013)
The Associazione 21 luglio was awarded a one-year-operating grant by Charlemagne Foundation.
Sar San Project (2012-2013)
The Associazione 21 luglio in partnership with the organization ABCittà is participating in a project aiming at supporting a daily center for Roma children in Rome. Addressed to 25 Roma children, the project will last 18 months and is founded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation.
Italian Roma Rights Project (2011-2012)
The project aimed at promoting global integration strategies of the Roma communities in the EU countries, through researches, campaigns and monitoring. Associazione 21 luglio monitored the policies carried out by local and national authorities towards the Roma communities and highlighted strengths and weaknesses, good practices and criticism. Throughout the project, regular meetings took place with Italian and European institutional representatives. It was funded by the Open Society Institute.
– CAMPAIGNS –
2012: Video campaign Rom, cittadini dell’Italia che verrà (Roma, citizens of future Italy):
The campaign has the purpose of giving evidence of the daily life of Roma people who are positively integrated in the social fabric and who live in ordinary houses. The videos of the campaign remind us that out of 170,000 Roma present in Italy, only one fifth live in camps. The others live in ordinary houses and have a regular job.
2012: Campaign Stop all’apartheid dei rom (Stop Roma apartheid):
Through the national campaign “Stop Roma apartheid!”, Associazione 21 luglio addresses Italian civil society, particularly those who believe that the rights of Roma are the rights of every citizen and that it will be possible to build a new country and a new city only starting from the protection of “the last” in the social scale. Within the campaign, which will be active during the whole electoral period, several actions are foreseen to condemn and denounce the policies carried out in different Italian cities, featured by institutional discrimination, to identify and propose the best alternatives and to sustain those who will propose in the electoral period new policies for a real citizenship of each Roma.
2011: Campaign Discriminazione e Diritti (Discrimination and rights):
Through this campaign, the Association is monitoring the living conditions of Roma children living in formal and informal settlements in Rome, promptly reporting the situations where violations of the principle of non-discrimination enshrined in the national and international law are detectable.
2010: Campaign Quando l’ascolto è un diritto (When the listening is a right):
Associazione 21 luglio launched in 2010 the campaign Quando l’ascolto è un diritto, in order to raise awareness on the rights possessed by every child to be listened to in his/her basic needs. The campaign was carried out through public events and meetings with institutional bodies.
– APPEALS –
2012: Appeal Stop all’apartheid dei rom! (Stop Roma apartheid!)
In view of the coming elections, the Associazione 21 luglio launched an appeal asking to future local and national administrators to immediately stop any policy aimed at carrying on with the building and management of huge monoethnic camps for Roma and Sinti communities, and to concretely commit themselves to implement new policies, aiming at definitely overcoming these spaces, featured by discrimination and social segregation.
2012: Appeal Il diritto all’alloggio non si sgombera! (The right to housing is not evictable!)
Associazione 21 luglio launched an appeal asking the immediate stop of all evictions regarding Roma and Sinti communities in the Municipality of Rome, not accompanied by a serious and concrete effort of alternative housing for families. Several intellectuals and artists, including two Nobel Prizes (Dario Fo and Rita Levi Montalcini) adhered to the appeal.
2010: Appeal Non sgomberate i miei diritti! (Don’t evict my rights!)
Other than report the serious violations that occur in eviction actions carried out by the Commune of Rome against the Roma community, Associazione 21 luglio launched a public campaign to ask local authorities to suspend illegal evictions. In May 2011 local authorities were delivered about 700 expressions of support to the campaign.
2010: Appeal Alloggio adeguato ai genitori di Marius (Adequate housing for Marius’ parents)
After having found the tragic living conditions of the parents of Marius, a Roma child who died in his barrack on 30 August 2010, Associazione 21 luglio launched an appeal to local authorities. In a few days about 1,000 signatures were collected. Following the appeal, the Commune of Rome gave to the parents of Marius adequate housing in a shelter.
– CONFERENCES –
16 October 2012: Conference Thinking Counter-camp (Pensare contro-campo), at Palladium Theatre in Rome. The conference gathered some of the main Italian and European experts on Roma issues, who discussed about the best policies to be implemented in order to definitely overcome the “huge monoethnic camps” where Roma and Sinti communities have been concentrated in the last decades in Italy.
28 October 2011: Conference Ladri di bambini (Children Thieves), at UNICEF Auditorium in Rome. During the conference, organized with Migrantes Foundation, two researches were presented: “The gipsy kidnapper” by Sabrina Tosi Cambini e “From wardship to genocide? Adoptions of Roma and Sinti children in Italy (1985-2005)” by Carlotta Salettii Salza.
8 April 2011: Conference Dove abitano i diritti (Where rights live), at Pontificial Gregorian University in Rome.
The conference was designed and organized with the International Secretariat of Amnesty International on the International Day of Roma people. The focus of the conference was on the right to housing of the Roma community in Rome.
10 October 2010: Conference Ascolta i miei diritti (Listen to my rights), at Sala Enciclopedia Italiana in Rome. The conference, organized jointly with the “Movement for Children” was attended by the most distinguished Italian scholars in the psychotherapeutic, legal and social field. The event opened a reflection on the lack of listening to children by public institutions.
– MAIN EVENTS –
Two representatives of Associazione 21luglio participated in March 2012 in a seminar in Czech Republic, organized in the frame of the Youth in Action Programme of the European Commission. The main aims of the seminar were: a) exchanging experiences about social integration of Roma youth; b) fostering the partnership among local communities, NGOs and members of the Roma community; c) identifying, from a cultural perspective, advantages and inconveniences of the integration process.
4 March 2012: Rome, Teatro Valle Occupato: organization of the event Porrajmos. Sterminio e resistenza del popolo rom (Porrajmos. Extermination and resistance of the Roma people), together with Popica Onlus.
12 January 2012: Rome, Federazione Nazionale Stampa Italiana: Presentation of the Memorandum addressed to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, edited by Associazione 21 luglio.
29 November 2011: Rome, Piazza degli Zingari – Event: Il Piano Nomadi. Una risposta sbagliata (The Nomad Plan: a wrong answer), in partnership with Amnesty International.
21-22 novembre 2011 : in Brussels, a delegation of Associazione 21 luglio took part in the seminar “Dialogue about human rights” organized by the European Union and the African Union.
10 October 2011: Rome, Sala Enciclopedia Italiana – Associazione 21 luglio and the “European Roma Rights Center” (ERRC) presented two reports on Roma children’s and women’s rights, recently sent to the appropriate Commissions of the United Nations.
27 June 2011: Brussels – A delegation of Associazione 21 luglio presented to the European Commission a report on the conditions of Roma children in Rome and Italy.
6 March 2011: Rome, Piazza degli zingari – Memorial service for 4 Roma brothers who died in a fire in via Appia in Rome. In partnership with Amnesty International, Migrantes and Popica onlus.
1 December 2010: Rome, Oratorio del Caravita – Photo exhibition on children’s rights
L’Associazione 21 luglio e il Centro Europeo per i Diritti dei Rom (ERRC) invitano tutti gli interessati a presentare la propria candidatura per il Corso di formazione per attivisti rom e sinti
Rome, 8 April 2013 – On 8 April 2013 the world celebrates the Romano Dives, the International Roma and Sinti day. In commemoration of this day, this morning a delegation of young Roma and Sinti, accompanied by Associazione 21 luglio, has been welcomed by the President of the Italian House of Representatives, Mrs. Laura Boldrini. The 8 youths are representatives of the different realities experienced by the Roma communities in Italy. Despite the different backgrounds of every person belonging to the Roma community, almost every individual has experienced discrimination, beyond his juridical or social status.