Pippo Costella

Pippo Costella is the founder and current director of Defence for Children Italia. Defence for Children International is a worldwide movement for children’s rights with National Sections and Associated Members active across the five continents. Each of DCI’s National Sections works on the child rights issues that are the most relevant to their respective national contexts.

Costella has worked on childhood and adolescence development programmes with various NGOs, international agencies and institutions in the Middle East, South East Asia and Europe. His experience is focused on the development of strategies andprogrammes for the protection of children from different forms of exploitation and abuse, programmes and initiatives aimed at children in areas of conflict and emergency as well as the psycho-social dimension and the promotion of human rights in phenomena migration. From 2004 to 2008 he was an active member of the European Commission Group of Experts on Trafficking in Human Beings. He currently collaborates, as an independent expert, with various Italian and international public and private organisational entities.