LEGISLATION on animal testing and CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION

Animal experimentation is regulated by Legislative Decree 26/2014 (implementing Directive 63/2010/EU), which replaces the previous legislation (Legislative Decree 116/1992), and is aimed at the protection of animals used for scientific purposes (Article 1): the protection of their welfare, the promotion of replacement, reduction and refinement (the 3Rs principle), the minimisation of pain, suffering, distress and temporary or long-term harm through good veterinary and husbandry practices, and the correct application of anaesthesia and analgesia.

To this end, an Animal Welfare Body (OPBA) has been established as a user facility, comprising at least the person or persons responsible for animal welfare (Article 25), the designated veterinary surgeon (Article 24) and four scientific members. Furthermore, to ensure the correct application of Legislative Decree 26/2014, the Internal Regulations for Access to and Use of the University Animal Facility have been issued.

Legislation concerning animal experimentation:

Conscientious objection to animal experimentation

Article 1 of Legislative Decree 413/1993 enshrines the right to conscientious objection to animal experimentation: “Citizens who, in accordance with their conscience and in the exercise of the rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion recognised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, oppose violence against all living beings, may declare their conscientious objection to any act connected with animal experimentation”.

To exercise this right, lecturers, tenured researchers, staff and students of the University may use the template for a declaration of conscientious objection:

Amendments to the Criminal Code (Decree-Law 473/1993)

Further amendments to the Criminal Code (Decree-Law 189/2004)