Marco Cappato

Marco Cappato (Italian: [ˈmarko kapˈpaːto]; born 25 May 1971) is an Italian activist and politician. Cappato was an Italian Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2009. He represented the Bonino List within the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe parliamentary group. He was member of the Foreign Affairs, Civil Liberties, and Human Rights committees. He also served as a vice-president of the European Parliament Delegation for the relations with the Mashrek Countries. He was the European Parliament's Rapporteur on human rights in the world for 2007. A nonviolent activist for fundamental rights and liberties, in 2017 he undertook civil disobedience to push the Italian Parliament to approve new rules allowing legal euthanasia in Italy. Cappato breached the law by helping an Italian tetraplegic and blind man from Milan to reach a Switzerland clinic where assisted suicide was legal. Due to Cappato's trial on 24 September 2019, the Constitutional Court of Italy urged Parliament to adopt appropriate legislative protections corresponding to the principles and rights enshrined in Italy's constitution.