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PRESS RELEASES
BY AND ON EMMA BONINO |
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Member of the European Parliament.
Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and
Defence Policy
International Crisis Group (ICG)
Board Member
American University of Cairo
Distinguished Visiting Professor
PRESS ARTICLES
BY EMMA BONINO |
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Born
Bra (Cuneo), Italy, on March 9, 1948
Nationality Italian
Status Single
Studies Degree in Modern Languages, Bocconi University, Milan,
1972
National Political Career
- Elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies
in 1976; re-elected at every subsequent election (1979,
1983, 1987, 1992, 1994). Has held office such as that of chair
of the parliamentary group of the Radical Party and was a member
of the Presidential Bureau of the Parliament.
- Founder in 1975 of the CISA, Information Centre
on Sterilisation and Abortion, and promoter of the referendum
which led to the introduction of the legalisation of abortion
in Italy.
- Promoter of a referendum against nuclear
energy (1986) that led to the rejection of a civil nuclear
energy programme in Italy.
International Political Career
- Elected to the European Parliament
in 1979; re-elected in 1984 and 1999.
- President (1991-1993)
and Secretary (1993-1994), Transnational Radical Party.
- Appointed in October 1994 Head of the
Italian Government delegation to the UN General Assembly for
the "Moratorium on death penalty" initiative.
- Appointed in 1994 European Commissioner
responsible for Consumer Policy,
PRESS ARTICLES
ON EMMA BONINO |
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Fisheries and the European Community Humanitarian
Office (ECHO). In 1997 her field of competence was widened to
include consumer health protection and food safety.
- Appointed, in November 2002, Head of
the of the Italian Government Delegation at the Inter-governmental
Conference of the Community of Democracies in Seoul
Campaigns on issues related to civil society
undertaken at international level
For almost thirty years Emma Bonino's political
activities, have been characterised by the rigorous practice of "active
non-violence", defined and adopted by Mahatma Gandhi and now practised
by the Transnational Radical Party. This explains her frequent participation
in the hunger and thirst strikes, as well as in the acts of civil
disobedience, that have accompanied the main political campaigns launched
by her party. The aim of active non-violence is to force the institutions
to respect themselves and their own laws. Acts of civil disobedience
aim to show the inadequacy or the iniquity of a particular law,
and therefore the need to change it, not by contesting it with words
but by applying it "to its extreme consequences", for example by confessing
that one has violated it, thus leading to trials that have exemplary
value for the general public . Strongly committed against any discrimination,
particularly on women, sexual behaviours, and religious freedom, she
has promoted and organised several campaigns, all aiming at solving
major social problems with the methodology of "regulating and legalising",
methodology which she considers the most apt at curbing criminal interests
and the most adequate to overcome dangerous gaps between society,
laws and institutions.
With this methodology and this concept, battles against the prohibition
of divorce and against clandestine abortion were won in Italy and
are currently being used in the fight against punitivism and prohibition
on drugs.
- Founder (1978) and head of the association "Food
and Disarmament International", which led a campaign for famine-relief
based on the "Manifesto of Nobel Prize Winners" (signed by 113
Nobel Laureates), as well as head of PARIFA (1982) (Italian
Parliamentarians against Hunger), an organisation which played
a major role in the increase ten times over of the Italian contribution
to development assistance. Both organisations were based on the
concept of promoting "democracy" as a human right in itself, as
foreseen in The Universal Declaration of human rights.
- Promoter of an international campaign (1987)
in support of civil and political rights in Eastern
Europe.
- 1990/2002. Promoter of international
campaigns in favour of ad hoc tribunals on war crimes in the
former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; for the establishment of a permanent
international criminal court (Rome Diplomatic Conference and approval
of the Statute in 1998), a moratorium on the death penalty,
and measures to combat AIDS.
- Among the founders of the NGOs No Peace Without
Justice and Hands Off Cain.
- 1997/1998. Promoter, as European Commissioner,
of the European Parliament campaign "A flower for the women
of Kabul" (in collaboration with "Médécins du Monde" and with
the support of European and American NGOs), against discrimination
in general in Afghanistan and in particular to give Afghani women
access to humanitarian aid.
- 2000/2002. Among the promoters of an
international campaign (in collaboration with the European Commission,
the European Parliament, the Inter-African Committee against traditional
practices and a specially-formed network of European NGOs) for
the eradication of female genital mutilation (FGM) and other
"traditional practices" in the 28 African and Arab countries in
which they are practised, and for the recognition by the Member
States of the EU of the right to asylum of women and girls who
may be victims of FGM.
Among the organisers in Cairo, where she lives, of the International
Conference (June 2003) on "Legal Tools for the elimination of FGM":
the conference was opened by Her Excellency Susan Mubarak, Her Excellency
Grand Imam Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Bishop
Moussa, the Bishop for Youth of the Coptic Orthodox Church, representative
of Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the Coptic
Church, and was attended by representatives of governments and NGOs
from the twenty-eight most affected Afro-Arab countries.
- December 2001. Promoter of the international
campaign for the inclusion of women in the interim Government
of Afghanistan.
Awards
- Awarded the "Gran Cruz de la Orden de Mayo"
(1995) by the President of Argentina
- Named "European Personality of the Year"
(1996) by the French Catholic weekly "La vie"
- Named "European Communicator of the Year"
(1997) by the British weekly "PR Week"
- Awarded the "Premio Principe de Asturias"
(1998) for international co-operation by H.E. Prince Felipe
of Spain
- Awarded the "Order of the Prince Branimir"
(2002) by the President of Croatia "for her contribution to
the independence of Croatia and for her promotion of democracy"
- Awarded the "Gonfalone d'Argento" (2002)
by the Tuscany Region for her activity promoting Human Rights,
especially against the death penalty.
- Awarded the "Premio Presidente della Repubblica"
(2003) for her commitment in promoting human and civil rights
world-wide.
- Awarded the "Premio campione 2003" for integration
- Awarded the "Prix femmes d'europe 2004" for Italy
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