Award for Civil Valor

Individual citizens can receive the award (including posthumously), and it can also be bestowed collectively on all members of a military department or all residents of a municipality, city, or province when they have knowingly exposed their life to manifest danger.

The Carnegie Foundation, based in the Palazzo del Viminale, home of the Ministry of the Interior, has been involved in awards for civil valor since the Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in a 17 June 1911 letter to the President of the Council of Ministers, Prime Minister of Italy Giovanni Giolitti, granted to the government of the Kingdom of Italy a fund of US$750,000 in shares of the Carnegie Steel Company, annual annuities of which had to be used to pay premiums to people who were in economic difficulty but who nonetheless had worked in the face of danger to save the lives of others.

The law provides (Article 7) that the granting of recognition normally will follow an examination of the courageous act by a committee composed of a prefect, a senator, a deputy, two members representing the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, a general of the Carabinieri, a representative of the Carnegie Foundation, and a member of the civil administration of the Ministry of the Interior.

However, if "the character of the courageous act and the resonance that it has aroused in public opinion" are sufficient to attest to the propriety of the honor, the President of the Italian Republic can proceed with the recognition without the evaluation of the commission (Article 8).

Of particular significance are medals for civil valor the Italian Republic has awarded to cities, municipalities, and provinces in recognition of the acts of heroism credited to the entire community during war, natural disasters.