Last Friday the Italian Coalition for Rights and Civil Liberties awarded the human rights heroes that were nominated by the public and chosen by a jury for their work that shows that "the liberties of others are also your rights!"

Meet our human rights heroes!

Young Activist: Eghosa Odigie

Eghosa is a young Nigerian homosexual. In Nigeria, homosexuality is still socially unaccepted and constitutes a penal offense. Nevertheless, Eghosa was a very active defender of LGBTI rights in his country until he was forced to flee. Now he lives in Italy and is continuing his activism with the support of Arcigay Vercelli.

He looks for other young men who left Nigeria and other African Countries, forming a wide group called "Arcigay Africa" with the slogan "We are Africans, and we are proud to be gay."

Collective Voice: Randaccio Elementary School

On May 10, 2016, Rome's law enforcement authorities evicted an informal Roma settlement on Via Mirri, Rome, and because of this many Roma children saw their education interrupted. Only a few voices stood up against the eviction, and the most important one was a group of teachers and parents of the Randaccio Elementary School (Casalbertone), where dozens of Roma children attend classes. They wrote an open letter in which they affirm that school is "the most important place where integration policies should be implemented."

Civil Servant: Pino Tilocca

Pino is the principal of a Sardinian Classical High School and was the mayor of the small town of Burgos. While he was mayor, he was subjected to intimidating attacks because of his policies (he tried to organize the distribution of the public land, and those who were occupying it weren’t happy about it), and in the end they killed his father. He is very active in the fight against the mafia and is the president of “Libera” of Sardinia. Since becoming principal, he has worked for integration, the acceptance of differences and the fight against poverty. The school that he directs has become an important place to discuss these themes. He is a peace-builder and a courageous man, and he would do anything to reach the most important people so that they can meet his students.

Journalist: Valerio Cataldi

Valerio is a journalist specializing in immigration and organized crime. He is always serious and precise when verifying facts and sources and is known as a reliable journalist who doesn’t give in to sensationalism. One of his most important works is reporting for Tg2 on the terrible conditions of the Lampedusa Reception Center.

Lawyer: Lawyers of the Plan Condor trial (and a special mention to Alessandra Ballerini)

In these last few days, the trial of the South American assassins, kidnappers and tortures allied under Plan Condor has been winding to a close. This is the result of 20 years of work by an extraordinary team of lawyers, among whom are Giancarlo Maniga (who was also the lawyer in the Priebke trial and author of a denunciation on the Uruguayan desaparecidos, which gave start in 1999 to the Condor trial), Arturo Salerni and Mario Angelelli of Progetto Diritti, Nicola Brigida and Marcello Gentile. Thanks to their efforts, their families will finally have a judiciary acknowledgement.

Moreover, the lawyer Alessandra Ballerini was awarded with a special mention for her work in the field of human rights. She is, in particular, an expert of immigration law and is at the moment the lawyer of the family of Giulio Regeni and is striving to obtain truth and justice for the young researcher, who was brutally killed in Egypt.

Research: Human Rights Center of the Università degli Studi di Padova

The Human Rights Center has been educating generations of human rights researchers on the techniques and institutions to promote and protect civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Thanks to the Center, human rights became relevant in the academic world. Since its birth, the Center has used an interdisciplinary approach for its courses, always keeping in mind the interdependence and the indivisibility of human rights. The director of the Center is professor Marco Mascia, and had been for a long time professor Antonio Papisca. Under their guidance, the Center used a theoretical-practical approach that puts study, research and teaching at the service of a civil and democratic change and progress.

Sportsman: Salvatore Cimmino

When he was only 15, he had a serious osteosarcoma and had to undergo an amputation of one leg up to half of his thigh bone in order to save his life. When he turned 41, he started to swim despite never having been in the water before! After eight months, on July 15, 2006, he made his first crossing without the help of a prosthesis, from Capri to Sorrento, a distance of 22 km. Immediately afterwards, he started his “swimming strike” in order to catch the attention of the public about the problems of the disabled. In 2007, he organized the “Swimming Italian Tour”: a ten-leg tour of 15-17 km per leg from Genova to Trieste to remind to the public of the problem of architectural barriers. In 2008, Salvatore took part to the “Capri-Torre Annunziata” and to the “Capri-Napoli”, trial of the World Championship of open water swimming. In 2009, he was testimonial for the “Tour d’Europe swim2”, which is made of 6 legs up to 40 km and that includes the Strait of Messina, the Strait of Gibraltar, Capri-Napoli, the Strait of Oresund, Salvore Cape-Trieste and the English Channel, where he has the Italian record. In 2010, he started “Swimming in the world’s seas – For a world without barriers and borders”: a new challenge to conquer the world’s seas.

Teacher: Paola Rizzo

Paola is the principal of the Castellar di Treviso Middle School. Notwithstanding the protests of parent associations and the city council (but with the full support of the school council and the school teachers), she started many information sessions on immigration, also inviting some asylum seekers to speak with her students.

Creative Person: Condividi Love

“CONDIVIDILOVE” is a social communication project based on web and social shares that aims at equal rights for couples of all sexual orientations. In Italy, the change doesn’t have any important testimonial and has to start from the bottom with all means at its disposal: first of all, with shares. This is why a group of citizens of all sexual orientations decided to join their forces for this cause that should belong to everyone regardless differences.

Career: don Ettore Cannavera

Don Ettore Cannavera has been for decades at the service of another idea of penalty. Thanks to his double role as chaplain of the Quartucciu juvenile in Cagliari and as founder of the Community "La Collina" in the same city, he offered to hundreds of kids, who had entered the penal institutions, a way to be included into society. He also worked to end the idea of a vindictive penalty and has always publicly declared that the incarceration of youths should be outdated.

Artist: Mika

Mika is a Lebanese singer and showman naturalized English. He has always been very active in the promotion of the rights of all: after the insults written on a poster for one of his concerts, he started to write to explain how painful the silence on homophobia is. Therefore, he launched two hashtags (#RompiamoIlSilenzio e #Lamorefaquelchevuole) that immediately went viral and started a non-violent protest against homophobia. Mika is also a supporter of the UNHCR, thanks to which he went back to his country of birth, where he visited and supported the Sirian refugees.

At the ceremony also participated Angelo one guitar players of the band Jailhouse Rock, who is detained at the prison of Bollate.