The Terra Di Fuochi Waste-Scandal - Which Impacts On NATO’s “Free Mind In Consultation”
Author: LawSphereX
Category: General Law
Published:
Updated:
THE TERRA DI FUOCHI WASTE-SCANDAL: WHICH
IMPACTS ON NATO’S “FREE MIND IN CONSULTATION”?
Jacques BELLEZIT (University of Strasbourg) On January 30th, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a pilot judgment in case “Cannavacciuolo and others v. Italy”. In this case, the Strasbourg Court condemned Italy for violations of right to life in the “Land of Fire” (or Terra di Fuochi) scandal in the Italian region of Campania. In this case, neighbors of illegal toxic waste dumps were affected by several types of cancers. However, the said dumps were in the heart of a decades-long toxic waste management conundrum involving crime syndicates, public health issues, and environmental pollution with heavy metals or persistent organic pollutants. Beyond the merits of the case, the Terra di Fuochi scandal may also have an impact on the nearby US Navy and NATO facilities located in Naples and, at large, on the geopolitical situation in the Mediterranean Sea.
This article aims to analyze the legal and geopolitical limbs of the Cannavacciuolo judgment. Background of the scandal and procedure Initiated at first by case-law1 before being integrated within the Rules of the Court, the pilot-judgment procedure allows the European Court of Human Rights, in cases dealing with“[... ] the existence of a structural or systemic problem or other similar dysfunction which has given rise or may give rise to similar applications” to indicate to the respondent Government which measures can be taken by them, as well as to adjourn further applications until the said Government satisfied with the Court’s 1 The ECHR Grand Chamber 22nd June 2004 “Broniowski v Poland” (Application no.
31443/96) Judgement was the first one to enforce the Council of Europe “Resolution Res(2004)3 of the Committee of Ministers on judgments revealing an underlying systemic problem (adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 12 May 2004”). In this case, the issue at stake “originated in a widespread problem which resulted from a malfunctioning of Polish legislation and administrative practice, and which has affected and remains capable of affecting a large number of persons [... ] [such failure] has affected nearly 80,000 people [... ]There are moreover already 167 applications pending before the Court” (Broniowski v Poland §189 to 194) requirement. 2 This exceptional procedure was used on January 30th, 2025: the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a pilot judgment in the case “Cannavacciuolo and others v. Italy”3 (hereafter “the judgment”).
This case is rooted in the large-scale, decade-long pollution scandal known as the Terra dei Fuochi (“Land of Fire”, hereafter “TdF”). Also known as the “Triangle of Death,”4 the TdF zone is the seat of “illegal dumping, burying and/or uncontrolled abandonment of hazardous, special and urban waste, frequently combined with its incineration”5 spreading between the provinces of Naples and Caserta, impacting a “ population of about 2,900,000 inhabitants, or 52% of the population of the region of Campania. ”6. Since at least 1988, the region of Acerra, Marigliano, and San Vitaliano municipalities ( which all belong to the Naples Metropolitan Area) has been exposed to increasing “cases of lymphoma, leukemia, and liver tumours” (§10 of the judgment).
According to the 2022 United Nations Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes7 (“The UNSR Report”) “In the first six months of 2021, there were 742 waste fires in Terra dei Fuochi, or an average of 4 waste fires per day” (§39 of the UNSR Report). These fires, as well as illegal dumping and several similar forms of pollution, have spread hazardous substances such as dioxin, heavy metals, or persistent organic pollutants into the environment, which have led to the rise of various cancers and birth defects in the region. The Strasbourg Court relied on documents from international, Italian, and third parties, as well as references to the European Court of Justice case law on the topic,8 to assess the existence of the facts at
2 Rule 61 of the Rules of the Court.
3 ECHR (First section » 30th January 2024 “Cannavacciuolo and others v. Italy” Applications nos. 51567/14”
4 The expression was forged by Drs SENIOR and MAZZA in 2004 (Senior, K., & Mazza, A. (2004). Italian
“Triangle of death” linked to waste crisis. The lancet oncology, 5(9), 525-527). Cf. also Triassi, M., Alfano, R., Illario, M., Nardone, A., Caporale, O., & Montuori, P. (2015). Environmental pollution from illegal waste disposal and health effects: A review on the “Triangle of Death.” International Journal of Environmental research and public health, 12(2), 1216-1236 ; Greyl, L., Vegni, S., Natalicchio, M., Cure, S., & Ferretti, J. (2013). The waste crisis in Campania, Italy. In Ecological economics from the ground up (pp. 273-308). Routledge.
5 §6 of the judgment
6 §8 of the judgement.
7 OHCHR - A/HRC/51/35/Add.2
Visit to Italy - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes – 13th July
8 §167 to §173 of the judgment: The European court of justice rendered three judgments in 26 April
2007 Commission v. Italy (C-135/05, EU:C:2007:250) ; 4 March 2010 Commission v. Italy (C-297/08,
stake and the locus standi of certain applicants. It has also reserved the procedure on the merits and stated several measures to be taken by Italian authorities. i.e. : - drafting a Comprehensive strategy drawing together existing or envisaged measures. - ensuring an independent monitoring mechanism. - open publication platform to inform the neighboring population of the risks and the measures adopted.9 If 46 legal and natural persons lodged 34 applications before the Court on the current case10, only 7 applications were admissible, the other ones were dismissed either due to their disrespect of the sixmonth time limit11 or to their lack of locus standi.12 The remaining 7 applications will be dealt with in a future judgment on the pecuniary limb under Article
41 of the European Convention of Human Rights.13
The “Cannavacciuolo & others” judgment is a (little) drop in the TdF “sea” and more generally, on the environmental conundrum in the “Mezzogiorno” rural Southern Italy14. This scandal is heavily innerved by the Italian organized crime syndicates. Such links between illegal hazardous waste dumping and organized crime have been underlined by the
2022 UNSR Report quoted in the judgment
“38. Part of the waste was transported to Campania from EU:C:2010:115) and 16 July 2015 Commission v. Italy (C-653/13, EU:C:2015:478). In the three cases, the Luxembourg Court stated that Italy, by their inaction, infringed the then-Directive 2006/12 of 5th April 2006 on waste.
9 §494 and following of the judgment
10 Cf. Annex II of the judgment
11 §283 to 296 of the judgment
12 The issue of whether certain applicants were or not “victims” has risen reflections from judges
Krenc and Serghides, as this judgment follows the milestone “Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v Switzerland” judgment ( no. 53600/20) , rendered by the Court on, 9 April 2024 13 Cf. §11 of the operative clause: “[The Court] Holds, unanimously, that the question of the application of Article
41 of the Convention in respect of non-pecuniary damage is not ready for decision; accordingly,
(a) reserves the said question in whole. (b) reserves the further procedure and delegates to the President of the Chamber the power to fix the same, if need be, in no less than two years from the date on which this judgment becomes final; » 14 As a comparison cf. CJEU (Grand Chamber) C. Z. and Others v Ilva SpA in Amministrazione Straordinaria. , 25 june 2024 (case C-626/22) and our comment (J. BELLEZIT “Good IED ! ” - The CJEU Grand Chamber “Ilva” judgment: a Kirchberg view of conciliating environmental law and human rights” – EU Law Analysis - 10 July 2024). The issue at stake was the balance between environment and public health on one side, and the economic viability of a steel factory in the economically stricken region of Tarantino the industrialized areas of the north of Italy by the so-called Ecomafia. Another part of the waste was generated by the region’s local industries.
In the past, the risk involved for illegal waste disposal was relatively low since it was treated as a simple misdemeanour with low penalties. This encouraged many industries and companies in the country to associate themselves with criminal networks to lower the cost of their waste disposal. In 2013 alone, illegal disposal of garbage and toxic waste generated an estimated €16 billion for organized crime syndicates in Italy. ”15. Moreover, a major actor who sparked light on the TdF conundrum was the “collaboratore di giustizia” (informant) known as “C. S” who revealed the scandal in the end of the 1990’s. However, his statement was classified as a state secret from 1997 to 2013.
16 II) Place of USN and NATO bases in the TdF scandal To assess the facts of the case, the Strasbourg Court also relied on several documents, such as a Public Health Evaluation(PHE) produced by the United States Navy medical and public health authorities. According to these documents, quoted by the Court17, staff of the US Navy and their families are encouraged inter alia “ to lease multi-story buildings and live on the first floor up from the ground floor or higher, which will significantly mitigate concerns associated with vapor intrusion from soil gas ... ; Maintain indefinitely the July 2008 Bottled Water Advisory for off-base personnel for drinking, food preparation, cooking, brushing teeth, making ice, and for pets”.
A recommendation from the US Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center to the Commander Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia (CNREURAFSWA) also stated that “As a guest in a host nation, the USN’s ability to perform a complete human health risk assessment on Italian-private or USN-leased property, as it would do in the U. S. , was extremely limited. In addition, the ability of USN to conduct the PHE was affected by the thousands of waste sites, both identified and unidentified, in the Campania region for which USN had no data concerning chemicals or their concentrations[... ]. ” One can be surprised to see US Navy documents mentioned in a ECHR judgment, as the USA are not Member State of the European Convention of Human Rights.
However, we have to keep in mind that the US Navy is active in the Naples region due to the presence in this city of the NATO Joint Force Command (JFC) since NATO’s foundation18 as well as the USN
15 §38 of the UNSR quoted in §178 of the judgment.
16 §298 of the judgment
17 §32 of the judgment
18 Cf. the dedicated page on the JFC Website “https://jfcnaples.nato.int/italy-and-nato/english
6th Flee which is organized around the Naval support activity base of Naples, hosting “more than 50 separate commands and approximately 8,500 personnel”19. Both have their areas of responsibility in the Mediterranean Sea, at the crossroads between Europe and Africa20. Since the 2023 Russian “Special military operation” in the frame of the current Russo-Ukrainian War, we can wonder to if the TdF scandal might weaken Naples’ NATO facilities in their assignment as a major geopolitical place in the Mediterranean region. III) The TdF scandal : Health concerns as a Damocles’ sword over Naples’ NATO facilities NATO’s global action is not immune to environmental concerns. This issue was considered since the
2021 Alliance’s Brussels Summit and, on 28th May 2024, the NATO Climate Change and Security
Centre of Excellence (CCASCOE). was officially accredited. 21 Located in Montreal, it focuses on how the Alliance may adapt to climate change by assessing how antisubmarine warfare can be affected due to the heating of the seas, how the melting of permafrost in the Arctic region reshuffles the cards by opening new trade routes,22 etc. However, the TdF scandal, even if not linked to climate change, remains a threat to human health: Judge Serghides stated in his Opinion under the judgment that “ the waste pollution in Campania is largescale and spread across a very densely populated agricultural region [... ]. The effects of this pollution are diffuse and long-term, given that pollutants from mismanaged municipal waste are known to bioaccumulate in the food chain and breast milk, potentially resulting in multigenerational consequences”.
So it is an illusion to think that NATO facilities would be immune to such pollution: If the “Naples Website of the US Navy Region Europe, Africa, Central (EURAFCENT) : https://cnreurafcent. cnic. navy. mil/Installations/NSA-Naples/ 20 French historian F. BRAUDEL is famous for his thesis on the topic of the Mediterranean Sea, published in 1949 (“Fernand Braudel: La méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l’époque de Philippe II. Armand Colin, Paris 1949”). This thesis was among the first to consider a geographic object as a research topic. Cf. Özdağ, H. O. , & Doğan, E. (2025). 7 Redefining Ourselves So as to Make the Mediterranean a Mare Nostrum. The Islamic World and the Mediterranean: From Colonial Legacy to Political and Cultural Interdependence, 88.
21 Website of the CCASCO
https://ccascoe.org/our-story/ 22 The CCASCOE location in Montréal is not randomly chosen, as Canada is a member State of the Arctic Council, which admitted the People’s Republic of China among its observer States in 2013 (https://arcticcouncil.org/about/observers/ ; Willis, M., & Depledge, D. (2015). How we learned to stop worrying about China’s Arctic ambitions: understanding China’s admission to the Arctic Council, 2004-2013. In L. C. Jensen & G. Hønneland (Eds.), Handbook of the politics of the Arctic. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
Public Health Environment” (NPHE) study conducted by the USN from 2008 to 201123 focused on three health issues ( birth defects, cancer and asthma), this study has undergone limitations, such as the lack of up-to-date information from Italian authorities (§32 of the judgment). According to the PHE I Executive summary, “ Some unacceptable soil concentrations, based on residential use, were detected at Capodichino, Gricignano Support 2Site, JFC NATO and the U. S. Consulate; however, these samples areas are not used for residential purposes. ”(PHE I Executive Summary page 3). Even if the PHE study has led to an Enduring process shaping an action and responsibility scheme around, inter alia, the US Navy Hospital in Naples24 (e. g.
involving Lease Suspension Zones), one cannot exclude a peak of pollution in a short time (as it was the case, for instance, in the 1976 Seveso Disaster) In its judgment “ Locascia and others v Italy”25, the Strasbourg Court stated that Italian authorities had violated the right to private life and health of Campanese inhabitants during a waste crisis “state of emergency” which would eventually last from 1994 to 2009 (sic) and have sown dragon’s teeth for civil unrests. 26 We can underline that the PHE was conducted on a 30-year residence in the Campanian region hypothesis, whereas the overall USN and USN related-population average tour length is 2. 8 years, according to the Q&A section of the study27.
This reveals a shift between USN28 /NATO staff on one side, and the general local population, who have greater exposure to waste-related toxic emissions as well as other Mezzogiorno socio-economic problems (unemployment, poverty, or the place of organized crime)29 to which NATO and USN staff are marginally exposed.
23 Cf. https://cnreurafcent.cnic.navy.mil/Installations/NSA-Naples/Naples-Public-Health-Evaluation/
24 United States Navy - COMNAVREGEURAFCENT INSTRUCTION 6500.1A - 7th October 2021
25 ECHR Locascia and others v Italy 19 October 2023 (Application no. 35648/10)
26 D'Alisa, Giacomo; Burgalassi, David; Healy, Hali; Walter, Mariana (2010). "Conflict in Campania: Waste emergency or crisis of democracy". Ecological Economics. 70 (2): 239–
249. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.06.021.
27https://cnreurafcent. cnic. navy. mil/Installations/NSA-Naples/Naples-Public-Health-Evaluation/ 28 Beyond the official level, the US military has also communicated about the TdF Scandal in an less formal, open to public way : cf. ALISON BATH STARS AND STRIPES • February 14, 2025 “Italy ordered to tackle toxic waste dumping in Naples area with US Navy presence” Read more at: https://www. stripes. com/theaters/europe/2025-02-14/naples-navy-pollution-toxic-dumping-16831051. html Source - Stars and Stripes” 29 The Mezzogiorno is the Southern part of Italy: the shift between Northern industrialized Italy and the Southern, rural, and agricultural one has been studied under the name of the “Southern Question” (or Meridionalism) in the field of Italian studies (cf. Pescosolido, G. (2019). Italy’s Southern Question: long-standing thorny issues and current problems.
Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 24(3), 441–455. https://doi. org/10. 1080/1354571X. 2019. 1605726) ; Germani, A. R. , & Castaldo, A. (2022). Income inequality and In a nutshell, the decade-long conundrum of waste management in Naples’s region, assessed by multidisciplinary scientific literature as well as the European Court of Human Rights judgment, might have put a public health Damocles’s sword on NATO’s capabilities in the Mediterranean region and, to a lesser extent, in Balkans and south-eastern Europe The Cannavacciuolo case has underlined the role of organized crime in the TdF scandal : the mechanisms of the TdF were unveiled by an informant (collaboratore di giustizia, cf. supra): Former Italian president G.
NAPOLETANO stated in 2008 that “It is certain, not only to citizens but to the government as well, that the systematic transfer of toxic waste from industries in Northern Italy to Campania, was committed by the Camorra”30 Such “Ecomafia” (cf. supra) activities lay the ground not only for health issues but also for security issues: The Naples waste crisis (1994-2009) found its roots, according to Bruno Mascitelli, in a “dispersion of authority”31 between European Union, National, provincial and local authorities, which tried to work in a multi-level scale. This failure, due to the high rate of corruption and organized crime influence, has led to the protraction of the crisis. The Cannavacciuolo pilot case and the measures indicated by the Court in its judgment lead to the conclusion that the crisis is not over, despite the cessation of the waste-crisis state of emergency since 2009.
So we can assume other civil unrest is still possible on this topic: as forementioned, the shift between decade-long exposure to toxic substances of the general population and the shortness of NATO-related staff tours might indeed fuel a comeback of such troubles. It can also be fueled by Italian domestic considerations: The 2022 Italian general elections have opened the gates of the palace Chigi (seat of the government) to the pro-EU and pro-NATO right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni32, the Naples constituency voted in favor of the populist syncretic party “Five Star Movement”33. environmental crime in Italy: an empirical analysis at regional level. In Inequality, welfare policies and macroeconomic sustainability of public finances (pp. 97-117). McGraw Hill. 30 "Napolitano: "Rifiuti tossici arrivati in gran parte dal nord"". la Repubblica.
4 June 2008 ; "Rifiuti, l'allarme di Napolitano: "Quelli tossici provengono dal Nord"". la Stampa. 4 June 2008 31 Mascitelli, B. (2024). Governance during a time of crisis: Addressing the waste crisis in Naples, Italy. Australian and New Zealand Journal of European Studies, 16(1/2). 32 "New Italy government will be pro-NATO, pro-Europe, says Meloni". Reuters. 20 October 2022. Retrieved 04 March 2025 33 Improta, M. , Mannoni, E. , Marcellino, C. , & Trastulli, F. E. (2022). Voters, issues, and party loyalty: The 2022 Italian election under the magnifying glass. Quaderni dell’Osservatorio elettorale–Italian Journal of Electoral Studies, 85(2), 3-27.
This party has previously withdrawn its confidence in the former Draghi cabinet in 2022, having led to snap elections. Beyond the risk of domestic political turmoil, Naples’s NATO facilities may also have to face uncertain international relations, in the tracks of the 2022 Russian “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine. The Naples NATO facilities of the JFC were indeed aimed by the Russian GRU military intelligence service in 2020, involving a French lieutenant-colonel on duty in the NATO base. 34. This action underlines the sensitivity of the JFC as a supervising Command over the Mediterranean zone and, since 2015, over the Headquarters Multinational Corps Southeast located in Romania with the Black Sea as an area of responsibility35.
Beyond political and geostrategic considerations, organized crime can also be a weakness for the JFC : if the role of Italian organized crime in waste management is documented, we can wonder if such an actor can build an alliance with other ones. According to Roberto Salviano, “Italian mafia has outsourced operations to the East that stretch from Russia to the Balkans. ” since the fall of the Berlin Wall despite cultural differences36 one may fear the Neapolitan waste conundrum to be an entrance of Eastern or Balkanic organized crimes, as such or as a proxy for governmental uncover actions.
Lastly, we can mention the uncertainty around NATO’s fate following Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024 : If President Trump and Prime Minister Meloni are said to build a friendly “ conservative axis”37, the noted tantrums which have taken place in the Oval office between US and Ukrainian presidents on February 28th 202538 and President Trump’s marmite relationship with NATO might also bring several unknowns in this complex equation.
Conclusion The Terra dei Fuochi scandal is a decade-long complex conundrum deeply rooted into the Italian sociocultural context: Located in the southern, rural, and economically-stricken region of Campania, it mixes 34 BBC “French spying: Senior army officer investigated” 30 August 2020 ; Jacques Follorou, « Soupçonné de trahison au profit de la Russie, un officier de l'armée écroué », Le Monde, 31 août 2020 35 NATO, 01 december 2015 “NATO activates new Multinational Division Southeast headquarters in Bucharest” 36 Roberto Saviano on the mafia and Eastern Europe - Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa -- 20/10/2009 37 Marco Tabili The Trump-Meloni connection: building a conservative axis 14 December 2024 – The NYC Daily Post 38 Dan Peleschuk , Yurii Kovalenko “Ukrainians face new reality after Trump-Zelenskiy clash” March 1, 2025 - Reuters issues of public health, environmental law on long-term pollutions as well as geopolitical top-level questions, the latter being heavily influenced by the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine and its high-speed kinetic evolutions.
In this context, if the NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force standard allows deployment of 5. 000 personnel within 2 days (up to 7 days)39 in case of a major crisis demanding a NATO Response Force, the Naples JFC must face the long-term and low-noise issue of the TdF scandal, in accordance with the Italian authorities. If we doubt that such an environmental problem may be a single or isolated question for drafting NATO’s future, it must be nevertheless comprised within a complex network of intricated known and unknown factors, which have their own momentum. Otherwise, NATO cannot be fully dedicated to its motto of being an “animus in consulendo liber” (“in discussion a free mind”).
39 NATO SHAPE Website Q&A “The Very High Readiness Joint Task Force”