Hilarry Sedu is a 34-year-old lawyer of Nigerian origin, a councillor of the Ordine degli Avvocati – the Bar – in Naples, and of the legal team of the nonprofit Bon’t worry. He was in the media on 3rd February when, during a court hearing, an honorary judge asked him if he had a degree and the right to practise as a lawyer. “It’s painful to still have to talk about these things in 2021. But we need to talk about them because here in Italy people still find it a struggle to imagine a multicultural society”.
Hilarry Sadu, have you got over that bad day?
“I’ve more or less got over it, but discrimination is always hurtful”.
Had this happened to you before?
Yes, it had happened before. I would sometimes just laugh it off. Some people don’t recognise that I am a lawyer. During one criminal trial, the judge asked the defendant who his lawyer was when I was already in the courtroom
Are there a lot of lawyers of foreign origin in Italy?
“Yes, there are a lot. In Naples, Palermo, Cagliari, in the Veneto, in Calabria… I’m the first member of the Ordine degli Avvocati – the Italian Bar – of foreign origin”.
And magistrates?
“None. The training route for people who plan to take the national competition to become a magistrate is hard and expensive. For this reason it is often impossible for children of foreigners who don’t have the financial means”.
Does it bother you that you have become a symbol of the fight against discrimination?
“I was pleased to get so much support, from Merano to Caltagirone. But it is painful that these things are still happening in 2021. We still haven’t elaborated a multi-ethnic society like that in the UK, France and Germany”.
You’ve been in Italy since you were 6 months old. Has the situation got worse in recent years?
“It has always been like this. When my parents migrated to Italy, there weren’t a lot of foreigners. Since the Arab Spring there has been a huge number of arrivals from Sub-Saharan Africa. In the end this has an impact on society and the way of life. Maybe not all hostile behaviour is due to racism, but there are certainly cultural barriers”.
In your profession you are very involved with migrants and keyboard haters. And this phenomenon is greatly on the increase.
“The haters have increased with the spread of social media. But their targets are not only foreigners. There are cases of cyberbullying, body shaming and vilification of women. There are episodes of violence”.
Recently there has been a lot of talk of reforming the justice system in Italy. Where would you start?
“By digitalising the offices of the justices of peace. Instead of talking about cutting the statute of limitations to speed up a cumbersome system, we need to change the structure. We can’t cancel rights and constitutional guarantees in the name of efficiency. We often forget that punishment begins from the time a prosecution is brought. A sentence is “handed down” before the trial even comes to court, during which time the life of that person is held in limbo. At that point, if it takes too long, you can no longer expect the citizen to be sentenced, you can’t chop off his head just to do things quicker. If we want the justice system to be less cumbersome, we need more magistrates, more clerks, so we can have faster sentences”.
Citizenship, ‘ius soli’, ‘ius culturae’, the right to vote, other issues we’ve been discussing for years…
The law on citizenship dates back to 1992. Society has changed since then. More foreigners have arrived and their children have been born here. People who have attended school, done their education here and for this reason are Italian citizens
‘Ius soli’ or ‘ius culturae’?
“The left-wing would like ‘ius soli’. The right wants to maintain the status quo. ‘Ius culturae’ is a middle way. Citizenship not for all foreigners but for those who were born here and have attended two school cycles. You are Italian when you have mastered the language and assimilated the culture. Who better than those who have attended our schools?”.
Then there’s the question of the right to vote.
“It’s a principle enshrined in article 3 of the Constitution: ‘It is the duty of the Republic to remove the obstacles of an economic and social nature which, by limiting the freedom and equality of citizens, prevent the full development of the human person and the effective participation of all workers in the political, economic and social organisation of the country’. So why not recognise the right to vote in administrative elections? For national elections, which require an intervention at national level, you need to be an Italian citizen”.
Translated by Anne Parry
