THEL 19 and 20 Octoberall‘State University of Milanwill be held there first civic assembly drawn by lot in Italydedicated to social parenting. An event that aims to put the citizens themselves at the center of the public debate. This is one innovative toolused for a few years in many countries abroad, including France, Spain and Irelandto debate issues of great social relevance such as end of life, abortion and climate change.
Social parenting, an event of the Luca Coscioni Association
During this experiment, organized byLuca Coscioni Association as part of its twentieth National Congress, the participants (it is possible to be part of the “extracted citizens” by registering at This link) exactly as in the real assemblies, they will come first informed by a group of experts, then called to discuss a topic of collective relevance and then decide proposals and recommendations to be brought to the attention of the institutions.
Citizens drawn by lot
The ones to dialogue and exchange opinions will therefore not be politicians or professionals, but citizens drawn by lot which will form a representative sample of each segment of the population (by age, education, region of origin). The topic they will discuss will be that of social parenting, an expression which refers to all those forms of parenting that are not necessarily biological but deriving from the use, for example, of assisted fertilization and pregnancy techniques for others. We will therefore talk about this but also about adoptions and legal recognition of children.
«Many conclusions of the civic assemblies then became laws, achieving reforms that the elected politicians, too busy chasing popular consensus or clashing between the majority and the opposition, had failed to adopt. We want to promote an alternative model, with the direct and informed involvement of citizens”, he explained Filomena Gallo, national secretary of the Luca Coscioni Association.
The event program
During the first day, October 20, around 152 citizens will take part in a session in which experts will discuss the four topics covered by the assembly. The next day, only those selected by lot, divided into groups, will work in groups on specific topics. At the end of the work, each group will have produced recommendations which will be presented in plenary to be first discussed, possibly reformulated and then voted on. The works will be moderated by facilitators, who will have the task of guaranteeing everyone the opportunity to express themselves. The event is sponsored by the University of Milan, financed by the European Union and organized in collaboration with Eumans, the pan-European citizens’ movement.
Social parenting: why?
Why the topic of social parenting? «A theme has been chosen on which politics offers a show of brawling, on the one hand with proposals for the criminalization of those who want to have a child, on the other with the risk of unregulated commercialization. Instead of ideological and extreme battles, we need people who want to discuss and understand. At this point, if the parties have not succeeded, let the citizens try“, explains Marco Cappato, treasurer of the Luca Coscioni Association.
«Social parenting is the expression by which we mean all those forms of non-biological parenting, but resulting from the use of various techniques including, by way of example only, assisted fertilization with heterologous techniques and pregnancy for others. A complex topic on which it is important to provide information on both a scientific and legal level, addressing the various angles. Thanks to the in-depth analysis and reflection of experts, the Civic Assembly aims to submit recommendations and proposals to the Italian and/or European institutions”.
What is a Civic Assembly
The Civic Assembly represents the most advanced form of participatory democracy: that deliberative. A process through which citizens arrive at political proposals on issues of public interest, from climateat the social justiceuntil civil rights. Its members, who sit in this temporary decision-making body alongside the elective institutions at various levels of government, are selected by statistical draw with the aim of forming a representative sample of the company. During the work, participants learn in depth the issues to be addressed, they listen to experts and various interested parties. Then they decide collectively and finally make recommendations and proposals that are addressed to the authorities.
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