06 February 2021 :

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe elected me to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) as a member on behalf of Italy. This is my second term which will last from February 3, 2021 to December 19, 2023.
It was the happy outcome of a long process, with its obstacles and adversities. I have hoped against all hope. The Committee of Ministers made its choice in a trio of names sent by the Italian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg. Twice the bodies of the Council of Europe responsible for evaluating the candidacies had come out in my favor.
Yet the Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio has twice placed obstacles in the way of the natural development of the procedure, which would like to confirm the candidate on whom the opinions of these evaluation bodies converge. All the more so if it is the outgoing member, so as not to lose the experience gained during the first term, taking into account that the CPT is a technical and not a political body. A year ago, her position prevailed over me in the passage to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, except that "his" candidate, once elected, did not accept the position. 
This year, however, it went differently. The only woman in the triad, always first in order of assessments converging by merit, I had the support of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. 
#NessunotocchiCaino convinced, #Spescontraspem convinced! 
I dedicate this success to Marco Pannella who in recent days has certainly put his big hand on my head, and to all the inmates, in particular to the participants in the "Spes contra spem" workshops that HoC animates in the prisons of Opera, Parma, Voghera, Rebibbia and Secondigliano. 
A special thanks goes to Ambassador Giulio Maria Terzi, to En Marche EMP Sandro Gozi, to MP Deborah Bergamini, to Senator Roberto Rampi, to Andrea Nicolosi and to those who and to those who, with me, believed in the possible good. 
I also thank all those who with their support and their inscription have given and give to HoC the strength and meaning to go forward and change what is only apparently unchangeable. 
I invite you to register for this year, and if you have already done so, help us to find other members, to make 2021 the year of justice and freedom, of hope against all hope. 

A hug, 

Elisabetta Zamparutti