A reflection on the value of law, justice, and conscience
Are the rules still being followed?
A few days ago, while I was at the airport, I met an old friend. He was accompanied by a colleague and introduced me with words that struck me: “He is a man who has long worked for human rights, interreligious dialogue, and diplomacy. He knows very well what is happening, and it is worth listening to him because he is not biased — he always speaks the truth.”
I appreciated his words, even if I was surprised. But I was even more surprised when, speaking about the war in Gaza, he asked me directly: “Alfredo… whose side are you on?”
Without hesitation, I replied: on the side of law, justice, and certainly on the side of humanity.
His question kept echoing in my mind as I drove home. Whose side are you on?
If we analyze this question through sociology, psychology, or the science of education, we discover that many people, while recognizing the gravity of the violations taking place, tend to retreat into their own political comfort zones. A deep division has emerged: governments follow one line, oppositions another, and in between lies ordinary people — who often accept what happens without questioning it deeply.
In this reflection, I do not wish to defend or represent any political party. I rather stand, as I always have, as a defender of law. When I was a football referee, I applied the rules with impartiality, and my life has always been guided by respect for laws — those of the State, the road code, sports regulations, and above all, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
There are many laws: international law, humanitarian law, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. All of them are founded on one essential principle — the protection of life and human dignity.
I was taught that democracy was built through sacrifices, struggles, and even wars. Yet I never imagined that the phrase engraved in Italian courtrooms — “The law is equal for everyone” — would, when applied to nations, reveal two weights and two measures.
The truth is that the richest and most powerful countries now dictate the law, and international law is no longer applied with fairness.
And so the question returns: whose side are you on?
As for me, I have no doubt. I stand on the side of law, on the side of justice, and on the side of humanity.
Law is not a privilege to be exercised at will, but a universal principle meant to protect everyone, everywhere. Because if the law is truly equal for all, then there can be no forgotten peoples and no lives that are worth less than others.
Dr. Alfredo Maiolese
President – European Muslims League
