On Saturday 18 May 2024, No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with an International Conference at the Campidoglio, in Rome, which saw the participation as panelists of more than 40 high-level institutional representatives, political leaders, human rights defenders and civil society activists from various parts of the world.
“Over these thirty years, NPWJ has waged countless battles for justice and accountability, giving voice to the victims of atrocities and fighting against impunity for violations and crimes of international law. We have done so with concrete proposals, not protests. We opened the path for justice to our partners, walking with them not instead of them. This way of operating has borne fruit.” said Tara O’ Grady, president of NPWJ, at the opening of the conference focused on how to strengthen existing international legal institutions and mechanisms for accountability and the Rule of Law.
“The success of the conference comforts us because we know we can count on old and new partners” said Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, Secretary General of NPWJ. “Friends and experts who have never doubted the integrity of our organisation and who have not hesitated to come to Rome. In addition to being grateful for their support, we are further strengthened by their determination to help us imagine the next thirty years, and how to turn the challenges we face today into sustained new actions in favour of freedom, law, peace and, therefore, justice”.
The scale and brutality of atrocities committed before the eyes of the world to this day, and especially the impunity with which they are now openly flaunted, seem to deny the very existence of law and the legitimacy of the accountability mechanisms that we have helped set up over the past thirty years. But the conclusion we firmly reject – as highlighted during the discussions at the Conference – is that international law is therefore irrelevant or useless. On the contrary, increasing impunity is what makes it all the more necessary for us to reaffirm that universal rules and principles of law do exist and must be applied.
The conference also provided the opportunity to highlight NPWJ commitment to support indigenous communities in the Amazon fighting for the simple right to exist as well as to preserve the largest biodiversity reserve on the planet, or in Libya alongside human rights defenders opposing oppression and violence, as well as our colleagues in Ukraine as much as in the Philippines, in Myanmar as much as in Palestine or in Afghanistan.
Watch the video recording of the event:
Radio Radicale:
https://tinyurl.com/zx723ufk
NPWJ Youtube Channel:
https://tinyurl.com/Youtube-NPWJ30Y-EN (English)
https://tinyurl.com/Youtube-NPWJ30Y-IT (Italian)
Program of the event
09:15 Welcome Greetings
Marco Perduca, NPWJ Board Member
Mattia Peradotto, National Office Against Racial Discrimination, Presidency of the Council of Ministers
Rosario Aitala, First Vice-President, International Criminal Court
09:30 Opening: Tara O’Grady, President of NPWJ
Keynote: Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi, former ICC and ICC-ASP President
09:45 Call to Action: Almir Narayamogs Suruí, Indigenous Paiter Suruí Leader, Rondônia, Brazil
10:00 Accountability in Action
Moderator: Niccolò Figà Talamanca, NPWJ Secretary General
Nazhat Khan, Deputy Prosecutor, International Criminal Court
Chief Raoni, Indigenous Leader
Emma Bonino, founder of No Peace Without Justice
Alpha Sesay, Deputy Minister of Justice, Republic of Sierra Leone
Isatou Touré, former Vice-President of Gambia
Nader Nadery, Afghan Human Rights Activist, Senior Fellow at the Wilson Centre
11:15 Keynote: Hatice Cengiz, Scholar and Human Rights Activist
11:30 Coffee Break on the Terrazza della Protomoteca (meeting with the press in “Sala Laudato Si”)
12:00 International Advocacy
Moderator: Fabio Maria Galiani, International Criminal Lawyer
Interventions:
Maurício Ye’kwana, Yanomami and Ye’kwana leader, Roraima State, Brazil
Barbara Ibrahim, Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, American Univ Cairo
Khady Koita, Human Rights Activist and President of La Palabre, Thiès, Senegal
Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Afghanistan
Giovanni Fontana, Human Rights Activist, Co-Founder of Second Tree
Ahmed Abofoul, Int’l Lawyer and a Human Rights Advocate, Al-Haq, Palestine
Marcos Orellana, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Toxics
13:15 Colazione on the Terrazza of the Protomoteca
14:30 The International Legal Environment and the Problem of Compliance
Moderator: Marco Perduca, NPWJ Board Member
Interventions:
Mauro Politi, former ICC Judge, Professor at the University of Trento
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Palestine
Nasser Algheitta, Professor of International law and Human Rights, Libya
Victor Ochen, Human Rights Activist, Executive Director of AYINET Uganda
Salvatore Zappalà, Professor of International Law, Univesity of Catania
Rodney Dixon KC, South African International Human Rights Lawyer, London
David Donat-Cattin, Professor of International Law and Climate Change, Center for Global Affairs, NYU
16:00 Closing Session
Moderator: Albert Alejo, Human Rights and Peoples Empowerment Centre, Philippines
Sayed Yousif Almuhafdha, Bahraini Human Rights Activist and Researcher
Flavia Lattanzi, Professor emeritus Int’l Law, Un. Roma Tre, ad litem Judge ICTY/ICTR
Hussein Sabbagh, Syrian Human Rights Activist, Euro Syrian Democratic Forum
Barbaros Sansal, Turkish Human Rights Activist
David Borden, Executive Director, DRCNet Foundation AKA StoptheDrugWar.org
Leila De Lima, former Senator, Philippines (v)
17:15 Vote of Thanks
Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi, former ICC and former ICC-ASP President
Tara O’Grady, NPWJ President
Niccolò Figà Talamanca, NPWJ Secretary General
17:30 Aperitivo on the Terrazza of the Protomoteca
18:00 Assemblea dei Soci di Non c’è Pace Senza Giustizia ETS (No Peace Without Justice ETS AGM)
20:00 Tour of the Musei Capitolini : “La Notte dei Musei”
