As a LAPIS (Free Association for the Advancement of Education) representative I would like to underline the importance of the educational aspect for the prevention of a lot of antisocial behaviours, among which corruption, the theme of our meeting. Moreover: school is also a revealing sign of corruption rate in every single state. In a report, Virginio Carnevali, vicepresident of Transparency International Italy, pointed out that “the expenditure for the education seems to be reduced by corruption”. In fact we can notice that “an increase of the public expenditure for education is associated with an improvement of the standard deviation of the corruption rate”. In other words less corruption determines more education, because the public expenditure is diverted “towards those sectors where bribes can be more easily collected”.

In a parallel and symmetric way, we can affirm that more education can determine less corruption, that is to say an effective educational action can defeat evil to the root. We have to fight certain psychological attitudes and certain patterns that  appear as winning in too many cases: this fact calls first of all the school in question but also many other expressions of the society, for instance the showbusiness and in particular the television. We have to replace the image of the cunning guy, who sees a world of people with price ticket on, with the one of the incorrupt and incorruptible citizen.

The Lapis’s proposal, which cares above all about the youth world, originated from a more than decennial action all over Italy in touch with schools, voluntary organizations, magistrature, prefectures, local authorities, and from the accurate study of Louk Hulsman’s thought. Freedom and Education expects the adhesion of politicians, magistrates, social workers, teachers, etc. We aim at creating an opposite and contrary answer to the current world trend based on repression, severity of penalties, inhuman judgements and jails. A total absurdity if we state the assumption that hardness generates a much greater answer of illegality especially among  young people.

Freedom and Education springs from the heart of the european tradition (drawing its inspiration in particular from Giuseppe Mazzini’s thought) that has made of civilization and respect of the main human values. We will operate in the spirit of the United Nations’ Convention against corruption.

Our ambition is to gather around this idea everyone that agrees upon the fact that only through education we can come out from the tunnel of violence, of the organized crime, from every form of illegality - corruption included. Against maximum security prisons - really useful but only in specific cases - we set a perspective of peace, food, water, instruction for everybody, including those 43 millions children that according to the recent report of Save the Children are excluded from school because of the war. Our choice is art, music, sport, education to a spontaneously growing - not imposed - legality.  How can we do that? Imaging the police more engaged in protecting the territory and the citizen, not only in running after the so called criminals, investing in skilled staff, instead of new prison structures. Imaging to make lessons of citizenship become a subject, the main one, deserving respect since the earliest education. Imaging a “restitutory” sanction system: you have broken the rules of the civil living, now you will work in a state structure that will grant you the essential to live but will invest your work in public works. Imaging a direct involvement of citizens who will defend the territory actively collaborating with whom is in charge of defending them. Always in the respect of the local values and traditions, with the necessary care of crime victims.

We hope that from all over the world ideas, suggestions, proposals, stories of experiences will come from social workers, magistrates, politicians, teachers and everyone aims at building a right and solid society, able to manage its pathologies investing in education as the only possible way against every sort of deviance, beginning with corruption. We want to bring our appeal and your proposals to the heart of governments. We hope to be a great number in order to become effective means of moral pression, so that institutions could not ignore it, and the legislative bodies must take it into account making laws on criminal justice matters.