PSYCHOSOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF EXPOSURE OF MINORS TO ANIMAL VIOLENCE.
FROM THE UN TO ITALIAN LEGISLATIONS, THE RAISING OF AWARENESS ARE UNSTOPPABLE!
The United Nations Declaration
On 18 September 2023, the United Nations officially ratified General Comment 26, providing authoritative guidance that requires nations to change practices, policies, and laws to comply with the UN’s “legally binding” Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This imposes the “strict obligation”, to all the 193 countries that are part of it, to prevent the psychosocial implications of the Exposure of Minors to Violence on Animals for which: ”
Children must be protected from all forms of physical and psychological violence and from exposure to violence, such as domestic violence or violence inflicted on animals”.
In this sense, the work of the European Link Coalition, of which the LINK-ITALIA Association has been a member since 2017, and the obstinacy of Malcolm Plant its Coordinator, was fundamental.
The request for the inclusion of GC 26 came about thanks to the reading by the Members of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a document drawn up by Teesside University following a study on the effects in children of exposure to animal violence.
UN General Comments are rarely released. They provide clear guidance on how nations should act to achieve compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The comments are “legally binding” and governments are subject to a “strict obligation”. This[07:58, 18/9/2023] Francesca Toto: will entail in particular the obligation to prevent anyone under the age of 18 from taking part in bullfights, shows where animals are exploited and hunting trips. It will also be a requirement for countries where stray animals are killed in public areas.
From Italy to the UN – From the UN to Italy.
The Consciousnesses are now unstoppable!
In Italy, unanimously on 6 September 2023, the revolutionary Bill on Bullying and Cyberbullying, signed by the Honourable Davis Dori, was voted in the Chamber (n. 866). Thanks to the Technical Advice of Francesca Sorcinelli, President of the Association LINK-ITALIA, for the first time in a Law we talk about the mistreatment and/or killing of Animals as a serious form of prejudice for Minors who assist or are the cause. Today the push to make stronger this Italian Law that is the legislative translation of the phenomenon LINK: the mistreatment of animals as an act to be condemned on its own, specific indicator of social dangerousness, symptom of a pathogenic existential situation and an integral part of other crimes, comes directly from the UN.
It is the first time that the mistreatment of animals is mentioned in a Charter of Human Rights, it is the first time that it is contemplated in a Draft Law on Bullying and Cyberbullying to protect Minors and it is the first time that it is contemplated in a Bill totally dedicated to the prevention, treatment and contrast of LINK, i.e. the Proposal (468). This is currently hinged in the Justice Commission: “Amendments to the Criminal Code and other provisions on the prevention of processes of correlation between Animal Abuse and Violence Against People”, presented by the Honorable Devis Dori and written with Francesca Sorcinelli. In 2014, the WHO and United Nations Global State of Violence Prevention Report found that antisocial behaviour caused more than 1.3 million deaths each year and an even higher number of injuries.
“So preventing, treating and combating interpersonal violence in its forms is literally a matter of life and death. In this framework the contrast and treatment of conduct in damage to animals as a due act in itself, is what can make the difference between life and human death and treating interpersonal violence in its correlations is what can make the difference between life and animal death” F. Sorcinelli
