iDEM interview with the Italian National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – Inclusion in legislation

Maurizio Borgo is the president of the Italian National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, established at the start of 2025. There is no audio for this interview but this is a direct translation made by his office of the responses to the questions sent by the iDEM team. 

Maurizio Borgo is the president of the Italian National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, established at the start of 2025. Could you elaborate on your role as president and the objectives that led to the establishment of this institution?

I am a State Advocate, with a career spanning almost thirty years, and I have held, over the last twenty years, several direct cooperation positions with various governmental authorities, both state and regional. Since January 1st this year, I have been President of the National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The establishment of the National Authority was provided for by Law no. 227/2021, on ‘Delegation to the Government on disability issues’, in order to ensure the full implementation and protection of the rights and interests of persons with disabilities; Legislative Decree no. 20, implementing the delegation, provided that «(…) as of 1 January 2025, the Authority «National Authority of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities» is established», which exercises the functions and tasks assigned by the decree itself, with autonomous powers of organization, with administrative independence and without constraints of hierarchical subordination. 

The National Authority constitutes an articulation of the national system for the promotion and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities, in implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, stipulated in New York on 13 December 2006 and ratified and made executive by law no. 18 of 3 March 2009, and began operating on 1 January 2025, as a collegial body made up, in addition to myself who am its President, of two members (Prof. Francesco Vaia and Ing. Antonio Pelagatti), appointed by agreement by the Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The functions exercised by the National Authority, listed in Article 4 of Legislative Decree no. 20/2024, consist of a complex series of activities and prerogatives, as part of the exercise of supervision of the respect of rights and compliance with the principles established by international treaties, European provisions, the Constitution, State laws and regulations, of combating any discriminatory phenomenon and of promoting the effective enjoyment of the rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognises, among others, the right to information and of participation in political and public life. iDEM aims to promote these rights by making democratic information more accessible. What are other initiatives taking place in Italy to foster the democratic participation of persons with disabilities? 

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by Italy sixteen years ago, stipulates that every human being has the right to vote and participate in politics. Unfortunately, for many persons with disabilities this right is not effective, and we must work concretely so that, as mentioned in the Solfagnano Charter, the final document of the first historic G7 on inclusion and disability, full political participation is ensured for all persons with disabilities.

With regard to the initiatives underway in our country to foster the democratic participation of persons with disabilities, I would like to recall some projects, carried out by Third Sector organisations and aimed at enabling persons with intellectual disabilities to better understand the programmes of the various political parties and groups, through the provision of documentation in accessible format, or even those that simulate the moment of access to the polling station and the performance of all the formalities related to the exercise of the right to vote.

I would also like to recall how, just this year, the Constitutional Court dealt with the situations concerning persons who are not able to affix a handwritten signature but are capable, using modern technologies, of affixing a digital one; in ruling no. 3/25, the Court affirmed that the preclusion resulting from Article 2, paragraph 6, of the Digital Administration Code affects their political rights under Articles 48 and 49 of the Constitution, which undoubtedly includes the right to sign a list of candidates that can be submitted to the voters’ vote; in fact, this is an activity that, by contributing to the formation of the electoral offer, directly relates to the right to vote. I would like to quote a passage from this judgment in which we read how the Constitutional Court has consistently affirmed that the legal status of the person with disabilities is the point of confluence of a complex of principles that draw on the fundamental inspirational grounds of constitutional design.

Based on your experience, what are the primary factors contributing to the exclusion of persons with disabilities from political participation?

The main factors that limit, and often even exclude, persons with disabilities from exercising their right to vote are lack of accessibility, lack of awareness, and administrative barriers to political participation.

Voting, electoral facilities and materials must be accessible to all persons with disabilities and electoral authorities must be trained in disability awareness throughout the electoral process. Political participation must be facilitated by removing administrative barriers and supporting persons in casting their vote.

The National Authority has already raised this issue in a meeting with the Minister of the Interior, who showed great sensitivity and willingness to make the right to vote truly effective for all persons with disabilities.

Can you recognise an improvement since 2008 when the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities came into force? Have there been any Italian initiatives that have brought about a large-scale impact? 

Italy has certainly made considerable progress in the path of full and effective recognition of the rights of persons with disabilities since 2009, when the Convention was ratified by law no. 18/09. I recall how in 2018, for the first time, a Minister for Disabilities was appointed within the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, to ensure that policies in favour of persons with disabilities had their own autonomous dignity compared to the past when they were included in more general social policies.

But the greatest evidence of a real paradigm shift on the subject of disability is precisely the reform law no. 227/21, already mentioned by me in answer to the first question, and the three legislative decrees that implemented it. I recall, in particular, legislative decree no. 62/24, which profoundly modified the procedure for ascertaining the condition of disability, simplifying it in terms of formalities and focusing it on a functional assessment of the disabled person. The same decree also completely reformed the institution of the life project, which will be individual, personalised and, above all, participatory, and will finally allow all persons with disabilities to realise all their needs, all their desires and all their aspirations on a par with any other person.

This is a real revolution, above all a cultural one, because it completely changes the way of approaching the issue of disability, with the abandonment of welfare logics to embrace, instead, the perspective of enhancing the value of persons with disabilities who must be considered, like everyone else, a resource and not a burden for society.

As an expert in the field of rights of persons with disabilities, do you have any recommendations for grass-roots organisations or initiatives trying to get change implemented at a national level? 

In acknowledging to the organisations representing persons with disabilities, at the most diverse territorial levels and of the most diverse dimensions, the extraordinary work that they perform, on a daily basis, in favour of persons with disabilities, I take the liberty, with the utmost respect, to advise them to fully embrace a logic of collaboration among the same associations and of networking with the world of institutions and with all the other public and private subjects that deal with the issues concerning persons with disabilities.

From the very beginning of my term of office as President of the National Authority, I have endeavored to pursue precisely this sort of ‘mission’ of maximum synergy with all the actors in the world of disability, convinced, as I am also by my varied institutional experience, that only with an ‘inclusive approach’ can the most varied issues intercepted transversally by the condition of disability be tackled, in order to pursue the one and only objective that must unite everyone, which is to make the full participation of persons with disabilities in political, civil, social, economic and cultural life truly effective.