P.E.A.C.E. - Protect Eco Activists and Civil Engagement ENG

What does P.E.A.C.E. work on?

Context

In recent years, civic space in Italy has been drastically shrinking. Repressive decrees, the disproportionate use of criminal law, surveillance, and delegitimisation campaigns have particularly targeted environmental, climate, and human rights activism. Non-violent actions are treated as threats to public order, while activists, journalists, and organizations face legal proceedings, sanctions, and intimidation.

P.E.A.C.E. was created to respond to this authoritarian drift by strengthening tools for protection, legal defence, and advocacy. The project aims to defend those who defend others, countering the criminalisation of dissent and reaffirming activism as a legitimate and necessary practice of democratic participation.

Protection and Capacity Building

The project strengthens the skills of activists, journalists, organizations, and legal professionals through targeted training pathways: legal protection, defence in detention contexts, digital security, and psychosocial support. Activities are based on identified needs and involve lawyers, NGOs, and experts.

Networks, Territories, and Alliances

P.E.A.C.E. consolidates the In Difesa di network and the Protection Hub, strengthening national coordination and expanding protection across territories. Regional workshops and exchange moments build alliances between activists, the legal sector, and local actors, reducing inequalities in access to protection.

Monitoring and Advocacy

The project develops a national dataset on the criminalisation of dissent and produces reports on the state of civic space in Italy. This data supports advocacy actions targeting national, European, and international institutions, with the aim of countering repression and defending fundamental rights and freedoms.

Protect yourself with P.E.A.C.E. trainings (in Italian)

TOOLS

Civic Monitoring

Collection and systematisation of cases of repression and the criminalisation of dissent in Italy.

Legal Training

Modules on new offences, legal protections, and self-defence in repressive contexts.

Digital Security

Practical tools to protect against surveillance, data breaches, and digital attacks.

Practical Handbook

An operational guide for activists, providing legal tools and protection standards.

Legal Network

A stable connection between activists and lawyers engaged in the defence of dissent.

PROTECTION HUB

The Protection Hub provides legal, psychological, and digital support against repression.

The Protection Hub was created in response to the criminalisation of activism in Italy. Complaints, trials, fines, imprisonment: today, those who dissent pay the price. The Security Decree also targets non-violent practices, shrinking civic space and attempting to silence movements.

The Hub is a grassroots, collective response: activists, movements, lawyers, psychologists, digital security experts, and organizations working together to provide legal and psychological support, digital security, and training.

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Reports and Resources

The new report "DIRITTO, NON CRIMINE"

(in Italian)
The report “Diritto, non crimine | per la MadreTerra e la giustizia sociale, ecologica e climatica” is the outcome of an informal working group promoted by the In Difesa di Network and Osservatorio Repressione.

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Latest articles and insights

Here you can find the Italian press review of articles produced over the years by P.E.A.C.E.

Go to the press review

ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED

he project is coordinated by A Sud, but it is conceived and promoted by the different organizations that make up the In Difesa di network, established 10 years ago and bringing together social organizations committed to defending human rights defenders. In its early years, the network mainly focused on activists at risk at the international level, on protection and relocation programmes in Italy, and on the creation of a network of shelter cities.

In recent years, given the national context, the focus has necessarily shifted toward monitoring episodes of repression and protecting activists in Italy, starting with environmental activists, who are increasingly subject to criminalisation and media stigmatisation.

All the organizations that are part of the In Difesa di network are also among the promoters of the Protection Hub, which also brings together collectives of lawyers and other organizations active in the field of human rights. The Hub aims to build a permanent space for monitoring, protection, reporting, and advocacy in defence of activists, associations, journalists, and anyone targeted by criminalisation and repression.