On 16 June 2016, the National Association of Civilian Victims of War (ANVCG), in collaboration with L’Osservatorio, UNRWA-Italia (the Italian Committee for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees) and Comitato 3 Ottobre Onlus, promoted a conference in the framework of the campaign on the protection of civilians fleeing wars, with the slogan "I did not want to leave - those who flee from wars need a hand". The event was held in the prestigious Caduti di Nassiria Hall at the Italian Senate and was part of the annual remembrance of the World Refugee Day that has been marked on 20 June, ever since the UN General Assembly, on 4 December 2000, adopted resolution 55/76 where it noted that 2001 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

The conference opened with the screening of the short film on and about the Island of Lampedusa realized by Emanuele Cervetti and Andrea Cocchi, film-makers of L’Osservatorio, and with the greetings sent by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who conveyed the hope that "the reasons for peaceful cooperation between peoples and the fundamental human rights will always prevail over violence and the barbarity of war". Among those who have intervened, particularly significant were the remarks made by the Senator Benedetto Della Vedova, undersecretary at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, lawyer Giuseppe Castronovo, President of the ANVCG, Tareke Brhane, President of the Comitato 3 Ottobre, Tana De Zulueta, President of UNRWA-Italia. The L’Osservatorio research centre was represented by Lorenzo Rinelli who emphasized how the drama of civilians seeking asylum from wars is mainly a south-south strain with a few countries holding the main burden such as Kenya, Lebanon, Jordan and even Syria that still host thousands of Palestinian refugees nowadays, stuck between a rock and a hard place.