"Giulio puts all of us in a dutiful position to give new meaning to words, actions, positions, and relationships and visions; because what they did to him could be no longer expressed in the language ...
Alessandra Ballerini
Alessandra Ballerini is a lawyer specializing in human rights and immigration. She has participated as an advisor to the Commission on Human Rights of the Italian Senate in the monitoring work of reception and detention centers for foreigners and in the drafting of the 2006 White Paper on CPTAs (Temporary Stay and Assistance Centers). She has filed several appeals to the European Court of Human Rights also against mass expulsions of refugees. Together with colleagues from the Genova Legal Forum she followed the compensation claims of protesters injured during the 2001 G8 summit in Genova, as well as appeals against the expulsion of foreign protesters.
She works with the immigration office of CGIL, the largest Italian trade union, and deals with women who are victims of violence, the care of children and the protection of marginalized and vulnerable groups. She is also a member of the so-called "street lawyers" for protection of the homeless and is an observant of Antigone. She contributes to the Community of San Benedetto al Porto Don Gallo, to Amnesty International, Terres des Hommes, the Sorriso Francescano and the Suore della Misericordia. She has visited prisons and reception and detention centers not only in Italy but also in Mozambique and Slovenia.
She is co-author of Il muro invisibile (2002) and wrote, together with colleagues from the Genova Legal Forum, the book Dalla parte del torto. She is the author of La vita ti sia lieve (2013), stories of migrants and other excluded groups. Her latest book is Giuli fa cose (2020), co-authored with Paola Deffendi and Claudio Regeni.
