DignITA – International protection of human dignity through criminal law: strengthening Italy’s implementation record (DignITA) is a Project of Relevant National Interest “Financed by the European Union – Next Generation EU, Mission 4 Component 1 CUP F53D23003570006” which sees the collaboration of four research units belonging to the Universities of Ferrara, Catania, Roma Tre, and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa.

DignITA aims to develop and promote a coherent approach to the protection of human dignity through criminal law at both the international and the domestic level. To this end, the project pursues three main objectives:

• to identify a concept of human dignity that is specifically relevant to international criminal law, by intersecting the broad conceptions used at the international level with the narrow understanding that emerges from domestic criminal law;
• to map all international and EU norms aimed at protecting human dignity through obligations of domestic criminalization, including the norms on core international crimes, torture, enforced disappearance, transnational organized crime, terrorism, protection of vulnerable groups, criminal business activities, and international human rights law and case law;
• to assess Italy’s record in implementing relevant international and EU norms, considering both their transposition into the Italian legal system and their concrete application.

DignITA’s ultimate goal, therefore, is to strengthen the capacity of Italy and other countries to effectively implement international obligations to criminalize conduct that violates human dignity.

The fulfillment of the Project’s research tasks will be organized in three stages.

During the first stage (months 0-6), the research units will focus on the definition of key concepts and methodology and will identify all preliminary and transversal issues.

In the second stage (months 7-18), the units will identify Italy’s obligations to criminalize offences impacting human dignity and analyze the State’s implementation record concerning those obligations.

The third stage (months 19-24) will engage the research units in finalizing the project and the relevant outputs, including the outreach activities.

All research units will pursue the Project’s objectives through an interdisciplinary approach, thanks to their expertise in legal philosophy, international law and criminal law.

In particular, the University of Ferrara unit will analyze the concept of human dignity and its relationship with vulnerability in the criminal dimension, as well as Italy’s implementation of obligations to criminalize torture, enforced disappearances, and apartheid. The unit will also address obligations related to combating transnational organized crime.

The Roma Tre unit will instead focus on wartime and peacetime core crimes, also analyzing further criminal iuris gentium impacting human dignity, such as piracy and robbery at sea, crimes against cultural property, and those against protected persons.

The obligations to criminalize international terrorism, along with those related to protecting vulnerable groups (particularly regarding violence against women, minors, and persons with disabilities, cybercrime, and hate crimes) will be analyzed by the Scuola Superiore San’Anna unit.

Lastly, the University of Catania unit will be responsible for analyzing the criminalization obligations relating to the protection of minors and the labour sector. The unit will also study the relationship between the criminal protection of human dignity and criminal provisions of the ‘general part’ (e.g., participation in crime, attempt).

The project aims at achieving the following results:

Transversal results: 1) A bi-lingual Website; 2) An open-access database on relevant international, EU and domestic norms and case-law, to be hosted on the website; 3) An ad hoc Observatory, outliving the Project, aimed at critically analysing data-set, acquired by monitoring relevant judicial proceedings, as a repository of knowledge available for academics and practitioners in Italy and internationally; 4) An open-access audio-visual library, to be hosted on the Website; 5) The streaming and recording of events managed by the Project, freely available on the Website; 6) A newsletter, to be published bi-annually; 7) DignITA social accounts.

Results targeting relevant stakeholders, with the aim to strengthen their awareness and offer them concrete proposals tailored to the Italian legal order, in particular: 8) Hybrid training programmes tailored to the needs of specific categories of relevant stakeholders such as judges, lawyers, non-governmental organisations; 9) Publication of handbooks and guidelines useful for training activities; 10) Submission of proposals for legislative reforms to national lawmakers on how to improve the Italian legal framework; 11) Submission of amicus curiae briefs, third-party interventions before the ECtHR and expert opinions in relevant domestic proceedings, including before the Italian Constitutional Court; 12) Cooperation with companies in order to draft model compliance programs, suitable to fit with requirements set forth in the relevant international and national legislation.
Results with a specific academic relevance, namely: 13) Organising legal clinics offering pro-bono legal opinions to vulnerable victims of some of the relevant offences; 14) Publication of an edited volume with the main outcomes of the project, as complemented by individual participant’s articles to be published in top law reviews.

Results targeting the general public: 15) Dissemination events targeted specifically to the general public and students, so as to grow awareness on issues and crimes covered by the Project.