The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled recently that Italy’s longstanding failure to tackle illegal waste dumping activities has breached residents’ rights to life and private and family life as enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court’s decision centers around the severe environmental impact and health risks in the Terra dei Fuochi area, where illegal dumping orchestrated by organized crime groups has been a notorious issue for decades.
As observed by the court, the Italian state’s inaction poses a “sufficiently serious, genuine and ascertainable risk to life,” thereby infringing upon Article 2 of the ECHR, which ensures the right to life. Moreover, the ECtHR found significant violations of Article 8, which protects residents’ right to respect for private and family life.
The court critiqued the Italian government’s claims that it had responded adequately, mainly through cancer screening initiatives introduced only in 2013. The judgment emphasized that these actions were insufficient given the pervasive and ongoing pollution, leading to increased cancer rates among the local population.
The ECtHR has ordered Italy to devise a comprehensive approach to address illegal dumping and to establish a monitoring framework and a public information platform disseminating critical details about the issue. This directive is grounded in Article 46 of the ECHR, which allows the court to recommend changes to domestic legal systems to correct systematic human rights violations.
The decision notes that since the Italian authorities have been aware of the problem, only a handful of convictions have been secured, revealing inadequacies in environmental legislation and enforcement. This lack of action against organizers of illegal dumping and insufficient revision of disordered environmental laws were highlighted as areas needing urgent improvement.
The full decision of the ECtHR provides an in-depth examination of these issues, underscoring Italy’s obligation to protect its citizens from environmental hazards. To read more about the ruling, visit JURIST.