The Charter of Lampedusa is a pact achieved mainly through a constituent grassroots process which brought together various organizations, associations and individuals in Lampedusa from 31 January to 2 February 2014. The gathering followed the death of over 600 women, men and children in the shipwrecks of 3 and 11 October 2013, at the time the most recent of a long series of tragedies. The Mediterranean Sea has become a cemetery as a result of current migration control policies. The Charter is not intended as a draft law, legislative proposal or as a petition to governments, but requires radical economic, political, legal and cultural rethinking. Such a U-turn begins with the construction of an alternative vision: freedom and right to self-determination for all regardless of one’s nationality or place of birth/residence. The Charter of Lampedusa has two parts. The first part contains founding principles through which all struggles and actions inspired by the Charter of Lampedusa should proceed. The second part is a response to current migration policies and militarization of national borders. The combination of these produces inequality, racism, discrimination, exploitation, confinement and the death of fellow human beings.
