Emma Bonino

Why an honorary doctorate? 

In 2017, VUB awards an honorary doctorate to Emma Bonino for her tireless fight against oppression, for refugees, gender equality, and human rights in general. She is a radical liberal.

She has swum through many political waters, waves included. She is an advocate, an activist through-and-through, who never shied away from unconventional, outlying opinions. Hunger strikes for the legalisation of abortion and euthanasia, campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty. Man, his equality, his defence; they are at the heart of her endeavours.

Not everyone's voice reverberates with equal force. But everyone is entitled to the same rights. Emma Bonino has heard, seen, but never kept quiet. In a manner characteristic of her liberalism, she spoke when others could not (or could no longer). The fire of the struggle for equality is one that keeps burning. A fire of battle that continues to be fed by the Emma Boninos of this world.

About her career

In 1979, Bonino enters the European Parliament. It is the first time that citizens of the European Community elect their representatives themselves. The 1980s are upon us, and Emma Bonino passionately defends the establishment of an International Criminal Court. She becomes involved in various campaigns to promote civil rights in Eastern Europe and co-founds Food and Disarmament International, of which she later becomes secretary.

In 1987, Bonino makes a direct attack on the dictatorship of Polish general Jaruzelski. She is arrested and expelled from the country. But her ideals do not allow for fear. In 1990, she participates in a demonstration in New York against the free sale of syringes. The city's drug problem is threatening to burst its banks. Bonino is arrested.

1993. Emma Bonino meets UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. She hands him an appeal calling for the establishment of the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia. Also in '93, she speaks to the Dalai Lama. She raises the issue of human rights in Tibet and advocates their protection.

In January 1995, Silvio Berlusconi's government appoints Emma Bonino as the Italian delegate to the European Commission. Its responsibilities include health, consumer protection, humanitarian aid, development cooperation, and fisheries. Less than 48 hours after her inauguration, she sets off for Mostar and Sarajevo - while crossing the besieged territories on foot - to raise the issue of the powerlessness of such factors as the UN's indifference.

During her time as European Commissioner, Bonino travels to the area where the Rwandan genocide took place, visits Somalia, then Sudan. She is responsible for humanitarian missions in Afghanistan and Kurdistan. She gives her unvarnished opinion on the Taliban regime, resulting in an arrest.

At an international conference in Rome, Emma Bonino collects enough signatures to establish a permanent International Criminal Court. In the 1999 elections to the European Parliament, Bonino's radical party Lista Emma Bonino becomes Italy's fourth largest party. A year later, she campaigns in parliament for the abolition of female genital mutilation in countries in Africa and the Middle East. Later, in this context, she launches the STOP FGM campaign, against female circumcision.

In 2004 , her loyal voters bring Bonino to the European Parliament and Lista Emma Bonino joins the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). It is 2006 when Bonino informs the European Parliament that she is resigning and returning to the Chamber of Deputies.

May 2006. Bonino is appointed Minister of European Affairs and International Trade after briefly serving as Minister of Defence. It is the first time that a radical politician has been allowed to call herself a minister. Two years later, she becomes a senator in Piedmont - and then vice-president - until she takes up the post of foreign minister in 2013. She remains in this role until 2014.

In 2015, she is tipped as Italy's first female president. But alas. Not much later, an emotional Bonino announces that a tumour in her left lung will keep her away from the political stage for a while.

In 2018, with the March elections looming, she is back in her favourite habitat. The same for 2019, when Emma Bonino of the ALDE Più party leads the coalition list for the Centre region in the May European elections. Emma Bonino is - by all accounts - a politician at heart.