Associazione 21 luglio

Name: Associazione 21 luglio
Fields of activity: human rights and children’s rights promotion, advocacy, awareness-raising.

ADDRESS
Via Bassano del Grappa, 24 - 00195 Rome
Telephone: (+39) 06 64491242
Email: segreteria@21luglio.com
Website: www.21luglio.com

MISSION
The mission of “Associazione 21 luglio” is:
- Protecting children with a specific attention to those who live in situations of particular vulnerability, such as Roma children living in formal and informal settlements;
- Countering all forms of direct or indirect discrimination;
- Collaborating with the institutions responsible for the protection of children, reporting possible abuses and/or negligence;
- Building a critical consciousness regarding children’s rights;
- Promoting campaigns and appeals when fundamental children’s rights are placed at risk.
In order to maintain fair judgments and freedom of expression, “Associazione 21 luglio” cannot access to funding provided by Italian public institutions.

PROJECTS
September 2011: “Associazione 21 luglio” got a grant from the Open Society Institute for the project “Italian Roma Rights Project”.
The project aims at promoting global integration strategies of the Roma communities in the EU countries, through researches, campaigns and monitoring. “Associazione 21 luglio” will monitor the policies carried out by local and national authorities and will highlight strengths and weaknesses, good practices and criticism. Throughout the project, regular meetings are foreseen with Italian and European institutional representatives.

CAMPAIGNS
2010: When the listening is a right:
“Associazione 21 luglio” launched in 2010 the campaign "When the listening is a right", 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.

2011: 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.

RESEARCHES
20 November 2010 – Pontificial Gregorian University in Rome - Report: Excluded and piled
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.

15 February 2011 - UNICEF Auditorium in Roma - Report: Casilino 900. Words and images of a diaspora without rights
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.

30 May 2011 – Roma Tre University, Faculty of Architecture - Report: The House of Paper
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.

APPEALS
15 October 2010: 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 30th 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.

30 November 2010: 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.

CONFERENCES
10 October 2010 - Sala Enciclopedia Italiana di Roma – Listen to my rights
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.

8 April 2011 - Pontificial Gregorian University in Rome – Where rights live
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.

EVENTS
1 December 2010 - Oratorio del Caravita in Rome - Photo exhibition on children's rights

6 March 2011 - 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.