5.A.1.6

Adria

Freedom of conscience and religion

National facts

 

CONSCIENCE OBJECTION

ITALY

                                          

Conscience objection to compulsory military service

 

 

 

The Italian Constitution, approved in 1947 and in force since 1948, at item 52 provides that “The defense of own country is a sacred duty for every citizen.The military service is compulsory according to the ways and limits established by the law”: that does not provide any possibility for objecting.

 

The word “obiezione”, that is “objection”, comes from the Latin verb “obicere”, which means “oppose, contrast, refuse”; indeed, conscience objection is a form of refusal to obey a law or a command from any authority since it is felt as being in contrast with an individual’s personal ideas and principles: such principles are deeply rooted in every individual’s conscience.

A conscience objector is therefore a citizen who refuses to do military service because he is against the use of military weapons and all the actions connected with such service.

Broadly speaking, the story of Conscience Objection begins with the Italian Unity.

Conscription, introduced in 1861, was strongly opposed especially among the rural population of southern Italy who did not realize the point of it and had to accept it perforce.

The Italian State reacted with a massive repression operated by the Piedmontese troops.

Discontent spread among the people and it reached its highest peak during the 1915-18 World War: about 470000 people were tried for failure to report for military service, over 1 million for other crimes such as desertion, false infirmity, aggravated acts of disobedience, mutiny.

Rodrigo Castiello ( a Pentecostalist) and Enrico Ceroni (a Jehovah’s witness) were the first two people who had to undergo a trial for conscience objection at the end of the 40s.

Pietro Pinna, a nonviolent activist, was the first objector  who was given a 10 month prison sentence in 1948; when he was freed, he was sentenced to prison again and finally acquitted from compulsory military service.

In 1949, following the first episodes of conscience objection, the socialist Member of Parliament Calossi brought the first bill about objection before the Parliament. In 1957 and 1962 the MP Lelio Basso brought that bill again, but his proposal was neglected with unconcern from the Parliament, hostility from the Government and the military hierarchies.

With the advent of the 60s the first Catholic objectors stated that they wanted to live a completely nonviolent life, by following the Gospel teachings and Commandments which tell us  “thou shall not kill” and “love your neighbor as yourself”.

Gozzini was the first catholic who carried out such teachings in 1962,  followed by Father Balducci who was attacked by the official church and supported by Don Lorenzo Milani who, on this occasion, wrote the famous pamphlet “Obedience is not a virtue any longer”.

The two priests, Padre Ernesto Balducci and Don Lorenzo Milani, were tried for crime apology.

Don Milani, who died in 1967, was sentenced while the church took no interest in the matter.

Those trials shocked the public opinion anyway, and the problems connected with conscience objection came up again: important political and social representatives were in favor of conscience objection.

In the 60s, Giorgio La Pira, Florence Mayor, in spite of an official prohibition imposed by the censor, gave permission to the showing of the film “Tu ne tueras pas”, “You shall not kill” by Autant Lara, dealing with conscience objection.

After 1968 objection came up more strongly, due to both political and ethical-religious reasons.

The army was perceived as an institution which imposed a dangerous control by the state on the civil society; that analysis was eventually linked up with further struggles in defense of civil rights inside  factories, schools, urban areas.

Lots of young men preferred imprisonment to military service: the matter had to be solved anyway.

In 1970/71 groups of 6-7  people gathered to object collectively on the basis of political reasons; by 1972 several objectors, and among them over 250 Jehovah’s witnesses, were in prison.

The political class, forced by the large number of  opinion movements and  nonviolent  protests, even though influenced by the military hierarchies and  opponent  political groups, approved the bill by MP Marcora; it was more restrictive and punitive than the one introduced  by Fracanzani, which was more adherent to the request from the various movements and organizations.

The parliament  passed law 772 on 15th December 1972: it granted everyone the right to objection and therefore to community service for moral, religious or philosophical reasons.

The “Marcora” law gave way to immediate release of the young conscience objectors  and at the same time it marked a deep change in the Italian law, as it introduced the right to refuse an “armed” military service in exchange for a “disarmed” one.

Yet, according to that law, conscience objection was not considered  a right but  a concession from the state subjected to strict rules and consequences: civil or community service was still dealt with by the Ministry of Defense.

The law, considered strongly restrictive and punitive (it imposed eight month service longer, a special examining board, no political grounds, military rules and courts), gave rise to a movement of objectors which gathered in the Lega Obiettori di Coscienza (Conscience Objectors League), LOC. Movements and leagues fought for years in order to change such a law and to get complete acknowledgement of the right to objection.

In 1992 the Italian Parliament passed a new law, but President Francesco Cossiga refused to sign it and sent it back to the Parliament together with his personal notes and reproach about the matter of conscience objection. The day after the President dissolved Parliament and then the law was delayed once more.

The following years underwent a huge increase in the number of objectors: 30000 in 1994, 70000 in 1998.

Finally, in July 1998, law 230/1998 passed: it grants complete right to conscience objection. Objection is no longer a concession by the state but it is a right for everyone: community service is perceived as a different way of “serving your own country”, it has the same length as military service, and it is carried out in our society with all its problems and challenges.

 

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