In loving memory of Giorgio and Antonio: state inaction as active violence. Italy’s compliance with its positive obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights regarding LGBTQIA+ protection from hate crimes: the national context and the case of Sicily

Abstract

This dissertation examines whether and why the Italian State has failed to protect its queer citizens from institutionalized-violence-supported hate crimes, and asks whether it bears a heightened responsibility to do so in Sicily. Through a sociolegal, mixed-methods approach, it combines doctrinal analysis of the POs arising under the ECHR with qualitative research consisting of sixteen semi-structured interviews with activists, civil society representatives, jurists, and academics engaged with LGBTQIA+ rights in Italy and beyond. As per Sicily, the thesis contends that economic underdevelopment, the continued influence of organized crime, and anti-Southern prejudice foster conditions of heightened vulnerability. The assessment sets Italy’s record against the tripartite structure of the State’s POs, encompassing the requirement to put in place an adequate legislative framework, to take operational measures against known risks, and to investigate effectively, unmasking any discriminatory motive. The findings argue that the deliberate exclusion of SOGI from Italian hate crime law leaves anti-queer violence processed as ordinary crimes, disables proactive risk assessment, and limits the investigation of bias failings the State knew of, contributed to, and could have remedied, but has insufficiently tackled largely due to lack of political will. For Sicily, measures of protection and recognition need to take into consideration structural, state-attributable conditions when providing the tailored measures it owes. The overarching conclusion obtained entails that Italy's protective failures amount not to neutral inaction but to active violence, therefore State complicity to hate crimes; throughout the thesis, this claim is grounded in the memory of two Sicilian martyrs of mafia-backed anti-queer violence and forefathers of the Italian queer movement: Giorgio and Antonio. Contains references and explicit remarks on homotransphobia discrimination, derogatory language, physical aggression, sexual violence, murder, and suicide. KEYWORDS: hate crimes; LGBTQIA+; positive obligations; Sicily; ECtHR.