Architectural barriers, the first exemplary sentence to the Municipality of Pomezia
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The Court of Rome has finally issued the first sentence in Italy - to the Municipality of Pomezia, in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital - for not having adopted the Plan for the Abatement of Architectural Barriers (PEBA). Thanks to the judicial initiative of the Luca Coscioni Association.
The PEBA not implemented in Pomezia
Only in May 2022 the Municipality of Pomezia, pressed by the requests of the Luca Coscioni Association, adopted the Architectural Barrier Elimination Plan (PEBA) prescribed by law 41/1986 by 1 March 1987.
37 years late with an unsatisfactory result which is the cause of unacceptable group discrimination against people with motor, neurological and sensory disabilities.
The order for the removal of architectural barriers
On January 5 2022 Judge Damiana Colla, eighteenth civil section of the Court of Rome, sentenced the Municipality of Pomezia to cease the discriminatory behavior by:
- hearing of the Luca Coscioni Association,
- adoption of a plan for the removal of the architectural barriers indicated in the appeal, by 30 June 2023,
- effective removal of the aforementioned barriers, by 30 December 2023.
A precedent valid throughout Italy
The administration of Pomezia she is the first to be convicted of discriminatory conduct due to not adopting the PEBA. And it's time to act towards most of the over 7.000 municipalities in Italy. Starting from Rome, where people with disabilities are afflicted and humiliated by ubiquitous architectural barriers, as Égalité has also shown in their videos.
'Despite the law n. 41/1986 and the subsequent law n. 104/1992 require all municipal administrations to adopt a PEBA, to date very few local authorities have done so.
Thanks to this ordinance issued by the Court of Rome, from today it will therefore be possible to turn to civil justice to force the Municipalities to monitor and register all the architectural and sensory barriers present in their territories and to plan the interventions necessary for their removal over time', (lawyer Alessandro Gerardi and Giuseppe Di Bella, General Councilors of theLuca Coscioni Association).
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
