Mr. President,
Let me first thank the Secretary General for having convened this Symposium supported by Italy that has brought to the attention of the world the unique experience and sufferings of so many victims of terrorism.
When terrorism struck Italy in the 1970s, the Italian Government was not fully prepared to be confronted with the atrocious suffering of the victims and their families. To address this problem, Italy started adopting a series of laws and regulations aimed at establishing forms of economic compensation. In particular, ad hoc victims’ relief funds were financed.
 However Italy soon learned that these measures were not enough. In listening more closely to the words of the victims and their associations, the Italian Government developed a more comprehensive approach to aiding the victims of terrorism and their families that includes the following elements:
• Free medical and psychological assistance.
• A partnership with civil society, to activate Italy’s large network of volunteer associations.
• Dispensing government services focusing on human contact and quality service. The Ministry of the Interior, for example, has set up a hot line for individuals injured in the line of duty, allowing them to receive home assistance from specialized personnel.
• New laws that give representatives of victims associations the right to participate in criminal trials supporting the victim.
• The victims of terrorism and their families have been granted the right to legal aid. Mr. President,
By listening to the victims and their associations, Italy has also learned, above all, that the main way to honor the victims and to truly fight terrorism is bringing to justice the responsible of terrorist acts.
 The most recent forms of terrorism are characterized by their transnational nature and require international instruments on police and judicial cooperation, the most important of which are the United Nations’ counter-terrorism conventions and resolutions.
But regional approach is also relevant. The European Union has  set a general framework of instruments of judicial cooperation among European States that has already proved effective in many cases. After the terrorist attacks in Madrid and London, direct collaboration between European judges led, for example, to arrest in Italy and immediate delivery to Spain and the United Kingdom some of the perpetrators. Mr. President,
Truth and memory are not just key elements of public ethics: they are also extraordinary preventive tools against the recurrence of such events. If we wish to demonstrate the senselessness of terrorism – especially to the younger generations – we should give back to the victims their identity.
It is in this spirit that in 2007, with the strong support of the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, the Italian Parliament proclaimed the 9th of May – the anniversary of the assassination of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades – the “Day of Commemoration for the Victims of Terrorism.” In honor of this day, President Napolitano wanted a book to be published that would put together the faces, life stories, and obituaries of all the victims of terrorism in Italy. Mr President,
Italy fully subscribes to the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and the annexed Plan of Action, by which States pledge to promote national systems of assistance to victims and foster the involvement of civil society in a global counter-terrorism campaign.
Today’s event bears a high significance for the United Nations and the world opinion. Listening to the victims of terrorism, understanding the wounds open to our societies by terrorists will help enormously to mobilize leaders, media and younger generations especially in promoting values of tolerance and compassion and at the same time fighting with all our energies the obscure faces of hatred and extremism.