The following is based on a communication written by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN experts to the Government of Italy on 26 March 2025. The communication remained confidential for 60 days before being made public, giving the Government time to reply. The Government replied on 28 May 2025.
Since the communication was sent, the Special Rapporteur has received information that the human rights defenders’ appeal against the expulsion orders issued against them have been rejected, with the judge reportedly citing that there is no apparent urgent reason for the HRDs who were issued these expulsion orders to travel to Brescia. The complaints filed against the police for their treatment of the women human rights defenders are pending.
This is a shorter version of the original communication.
BACKGROUND
Topic: the allegedly arbitrary arrest and degrading treatment in detention of 22 climate activists and human rights defenders from the Italian branches of Extinction Rebellion, Last Generation (Ultima Generazione) and Palestina Libera, in connection with a non-violent direct action at the premises of the company Leonardo S.p.A. in Brescia.
Elisa Francescatti, [name redacted], Marta Maroglio, Laura Lofaro, Beatrice Ravarotto, Arianna Carpinella, Francesco Baccinetti, Matteo Galliano, Michele Ghidini, [name redacted], [name redacted], Massimiliano Croce, Riccardo Rocchi, Davide Giorgio Scianca, Samuele Righetto and Yuri Pietro Tacconi are human rights defenders and climate activists who are involved with the Italian branches of Palestina Libera, Last Generation and Extinction Rebellion.
Palestina Libera is a non-violent, direct-action network that advocates against Italian involvement, both governmental and commercial, in the unlawful occupation of Palestinian Territories by Israel.
Last Generation (Ultima Generazione), formed in 2021, is an international and politically non-partisan movement that uses non-violent civil disobedience to advocate governments to reduce carbon emissions and take more deliberate action to address the climate crisis.
Extinction Rebellion, established in 2018, is a decentralized, international and politically non-partisan movement that uses non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to advocate governments to take more deliberate action to address the climate crisis and raise public awareness about the detrimental impacts of inaction to combat climate change and biodiversity loss.
Concerns regarding the alleged arbitrary detention and degrading treatment of a climate activist involved with Extinction Rebellion was previously raised by Special Procedures mandate holders in a communication to the Italian Government on 6 December 2024 (AL ITA 6/2024). We regret that a reply has yet to be received to this communication, particularly given that a number of the allegations contained therein, including regarding the alleged degrading treatment of women in detention and denial of access to a lawyer, are also alleged in the information received below. Concerns regarding the draft law No. 1660 on public safety, protection of personnel in service, as well as victims of usury and the penitentiary system (“Disposizioni in materia di sicurezza pubblica, di tutela del personale in servizio, nonché di vittime dell’usura e di ordinamento penitenziario”) were also raised by a number of Special Procedures mandate holders with the Italian Government in a communication dated 19 December 2024 (OL ITA 7/2024), particularly regarding its potential impacts on the rights to liberty, security and prohibition of arbitrary detention, freedom of peaceful assembly and association. We regret that a reply is yet to be received to this communication, similarly given that the below allegations concern these rights in particular.
ALLEGATIONS
On 13 January 2025, at approximately 8 a.m., the group of 22 human rights defenders and climate activists from Extinction Rebellion Italia, Ultima Generazione and Palestina Libera gathered outside the premises of Leonardo S.p.A, a defense, security and aerospace multinational that is partially owned by the Italian government. The group had organized the non-violent direct action to protest the company’s alleged sale of arms to the State of Israel, highlighting that its profits have increased since Israel’s military assault on Gaza in October 2023 and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022. As part of this direct action, the group unfurled banners and chained their arms together to block the entrance to the premises. One of the activists climbed a flagpole and replaced the company’s flag with the Palestinian flag. Other members of the group threw washable paint on the premises entrance, spraypainted “Free Palestine” (Palestine Libera) and other slogans on the walls and affixed photos from the destruction in Gaza. Two members of the group lit smoke bombs.
Shortly after the demonstration began, five police cars and a fire brigade engine arrived at the Leonardo S.p.A premises. The police requested and verified the IDs of all the activists and following this, proceeded to allegedly arbitrarily arrest them, which the activists asserted as a violation of article 349 of the Code of Criminal Procedures, which states that in the event of an identity check, police shall only remove a person to a police station if they refuse to be identified, or provide personal identification documents which there are sufficient reasons to believe are false. The police claimed the arrest was justified, alleging that the human rights defenders committed offences upon being asked for their identity documents, such as resisting a public officer, insulting a public officer and refusing to disclose their identity. The human rights defenders refuted these allegations.
The 22 human rights defenders were brought to the police station in Brescia. The police confiscated their phones and belongings and reportedly prevented them from contacting a lawyer or their family for legal support. They were permitted to call one individual who had initially been detained at the same time as them but was released from the police station, to request that they bring them some food.
Whilst in the police station, seven of the women human rights defenders, including Elisa Francescatti, [name redacted], Beatrice Ravarotto, Laura Lofaro and Arianna Carpinella, were brought to a room and ordered to undress. The door of the room was reportedly left open, exposing the women human rights defenders to men and women who passed by. They were then instructed to remove their underwear and squat down three times, a practice used for drug-related crimes. When using the toilet, the women were also ordered to keep the bathroom door open, whilst being supervised by a woman police officer. None of the men were reportedly subjected to any of this reported treatment, only the women human rights defenders in the group.
The group of human rights defenders were detained in Brescia police station for approximately seven hours before being released. All 22 were charged with ‘seditious assembly’ under article 655 of the Penal Code. Six members of the group – Marta Maroglio, Massimiliano Croce, Laura Lofaro and three others – were charged with ‘defacing and polluting public property’ under article 639, in relation to the throwing of paint and graffiti on the perimeter walls of Leonardo S.p.A. Two individuals who lit the smoke bombs – Michele Ghidini and one other – were charged with using dangerous ignitions or explosives under article 703 and one individual was charged under article 18 of the Public Safety Law for failing to inform the authorities of the demonstration in advance.
To the 17 members of the group who are not residents of Brescia, the police issued varying expulsion orders under Legislative Decree No. 159 (“Code of anti-mafia laws and prevention measures, as well as new provisions on anti-mafia documentation”), widely referred to as the ‘Anti-Mafia Code’ (Codice Unico Antimafia). Six of them were issued six-month bans – Arianna Carpinella, Beatrice Ravarotto, Davide Scianca and three others – and five were issued 12-month bans – Francesco Baccinetti, Riccardo Rocchi, Samuele Righetto and two others. Massimiliano Croce, Marta Maroglio, Elisa Francescatti and three others received bans of 18 months. Aggravating circumstances have also been applied in all 16 cases of the human rights defenders and climate activists mentioned, under article 112 of the Penal Code.
Elisa Francescatti, [name redacted], Beatrice Ravarotto, Laura Lofaro and Arianna Carpinella intend to file a formal complaint in relation to the degrading treatment that they were reportedly subjected to by police officers whilst allegedly arbitrarily detained in the police station. Francesco Baccinetti, Matteo Galliano, Massimiliano Croce, Riccardo Rocchi, Davide Giorgio Scianca, Samuele Righetto and two others also intend to file a formal complaint in response to their allegedly arbitrary arrest and detention by police.
CONCERNS
In the communication, we express concern regarding the allegedly arbitrary arrest and detention of 22 human rights defenders and climate activists, including Elisa Francescatti, Marta Maroglio, Laura Lofaro, Beatrice Ravarotto, Arianna Carpinella, Francesco Baccinetti, Matteo Galliano, Michele Ghidini, Massimiliano Croce, Riccardo Rocchi, Davide Giorgio Scianca, Samuele Righetto and Yuri Pietro Tacconi. We are concerned that they appear to have been arrested for exercising their rights to freedom of assembly, to freedom of expression and to promote and protect human rights, in a non-violent manner that seemingly did not pose a threat to the public. If this is the case, which the information received would indicate, it would render their arrest and detention arbitrary.
We take this opportunity to underscore that direct action campaigns and collective civil disobedience can be covered by article 21 of the ICCPR, “provided that they are non-violent”, with “violence” in this context being taken to mean “the use by participants of physical force against others that is likely to result in injury or death or serious damage to property”.[1] Given that the paint used as part of this direct action was washable, it would appear to not meet the threshold of “serious damage”, with the response by the authorities seemingly thus disproportionate. We also wish to underscore that by virtue of their nature and purpose, peaceful assemblies may be inherently or deliberately disruptive and require a significant degree of toleration.[2]
In her recent report on “Global threats to freedom of expression arising from the Gaza conflict”, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression stressed that “In the light of the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice issued in July 2024, States should repeal – or refrain from adopting – laws and policies that penalize opposition to or impede advocacy against Israeli occupation and segregation”. The Special Rapporteur also reaffirmed that “States must not restrict the expression of support for Palestinian self-determination”, stressing that “Advocacy of Palestinians’ human rights, including the right to self-determination, is legitimate expression,” recognized under international law (A/79/319, paras. 94 and 95).
We express particular concern with regard to the alleged treatment of the women human rights defenders and climate activists in the police station, which may amount to degrading treatment. We are particularly concerned that such treatment was reserved for the women amongst the group only and that it did not seem to serve a legitimate purpose or was used on the basis of well-founded concerns, but rather was seemingly used for the purpose of humiliating them.
[1] CCPR/C/GC/37, para. 15-16.
[2] Ibid, para. 44.
