Italy: EU action needed as ECRI report confirms dire situation of Roma
08 June 2016
The latest ECRI report on Italy confirms that Roma remain targets of hate speech and hate crime, continue to live in conditions of acute marginalisation and discrimination, and are effectively denied access to housing and other social rights. In light of these latest findings, the European Commission needs to investigate Italy for breaches of the Racial Equality Directive. For it is clear from this latest report that all the promptings, recommendations, requests and ‘urgings’ from European bodies to date, have failed to dent Italy’s undeclared apartheid when it comes to Roma.
ECRI’s findings are in line with those contained in a joint public statement issued by Amnesty International, Associazione 21 Luglio and the European Roma Rights Centre last February. The organisations highlighted the complete lack of progress with the National Roma Integration Strategy, and were so concerned about rights violations, forced evictions and endemic discrimination that they called on the European Commission to take decisive action and initiate infringement proceedings against Italy.
As the standard phrase goes “ECRI welcomes these positive developments in Italy. However, in spite of the progress made, certain causes for concern remain.” Here are the main causes as they relate to Roma:
Racism, discrimination, hate crime
The law does not criminalise discrimination on grounds of colour or language and the penalties provided for are not always an effective, proportionate and dissuasive response to offences involving racism and racial discrimination.
The Ufficio Nazionale Antidiscriminazioni Razziali (UNAR) is not in compliance with the principle of independence of national bodies specialised in the fight against racism and intolerance, and it does not have sufficient power.
The authorities are not always able to collect data on hate speech or other hate-related incidents or offences in a systematic and coherent manner. There is a need to assess the effectiveness of the provisions for combating the dissemination of racist ideas as well as incitement to commit and the commission of discriminatory acts or acts motivated by hatred.
ECRI calls for the full independence of UNAR to be secured both in law and in fact; and its powers extended to clearly cover discrimination on grounds of colour, language, religion, nationality and national origin. And once again, the call for “a coherent and systematic system for collecting data on incidents related to hate speech and other hate-motivated offences should be developed.” The data should be disaggregated, published regularly, with information on the number of prosecutions, the reasons for not prosecuting and the outcome of the legal proceedings instituted.
Especially concerning for ECRI was the number of incidents of hate speech by politicians that have targeted immigrants, Roma, Muslims and LGBT people. As one example, the report cited the Italian MEP who called the Roma community “the dregs of humanity”. While the incidents cited have given rise to judicial proceedings, ECRI noted “this has not prevented the continuing use of aggressive and offensive language and even hate speech in political debate on radio and television.”
National Roma Integration Strategy (NRIS)
The report is fairly damning about the considerable delays in implementing the NRIS and the fact that implementation of measures proposed by central government is left largely to the discretion of local authorities. As a consequence, only 11 regional “working groups” out of 20 have been set in place to implement the Strategy. A further glitch is that UNAR, which is responsible for its coordination, “is currently in a critical situation in terms of its operational and managerial capacity.” As for the strategy itself, the assessment is fairly withering: “In spite of the positive intentions, several sources have highlighted a lack of quantifiable objectives in every sphere of intervention of the Strategy, the fact that no specific funding has been allocated to the implementation of the Strategy and the lack of sound arrangements for monitoring and evaluating the work done.”
ECRI calls for an urgent overhaul of the NRIS including: the collection of statistical data in all areas relating to Roma integration in order to be able to establish an order of priority for the implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy; setting quantifiable objectives in every field of intervention of the Strategy; completing the setting up of regional working groups; allocating special funding to the Strategy; and providing UNAR with the resources it needs to be able to coordinate, monitor and evaluate the Strategy.
Statelessness
“ECRI deeply regrets” that the problem of statelessness has not yet been resolved, noting that the fact that some of the Roma from the countries of the former Yugoslavia have no identity documents heightens their social vulnerability and diminishes their hopes of integration and social inclusion. According to one study some 15,000 Roma children born in Italy were legally “invisible” in 2011 as de facto stateless persons, even though their families had been living in Italy for decades. ECRI strongly recommends that the authorities enact a new law or reform the law on access to citizenship so that no children born in Italy are stateless.
Housing and forced evictions
Perhaps the worst legacy of the ‘Nomad Emergency’ and the utter failure of the NRIS is the fact that thousands of Roma languish in segregated camps and squalid emergency shelters, and have to endure a vicious cycle of repeated forced evictions. ECRI noted that while authorised camps may be an improvement in sanitary terms when compared to unauthorised camps, they are a form of segregation, and in the camps ECRI was able to visit “access is limited to residents who have an identity badge, or the settlements are a long way from any services.” Such conditions preclude any meaningful notion of ‘integration’ and worryingly access to education for children has worsened. ECRI notes that the total number of Roma pupils decreased by 5.6% between school years 2007/08 and 2013/14, with an even larger decrease in nursery and primary schools.
When it comes to forced evictions, the ECRI report fully endorses the findings and recommendations of ERRC and its partners, and calls on the state to “ensure that all Roma who may be evicted from their homes enjoy the full protection of the guarantees of international law in such matters.” ECRI expressed its concern that an adequate housing solution response from the Municipality of Roma is still outstanding following the May 2015 Rome court decision which led to the suspension of the allocation of housing in the Roma settlement “la Barbuta”.
Roma continued to be evicted from their unauthorised settlements in increasing numbers compared to previous years, and evictions are often carried out with disregard for the usual procedural guarantees, with no prior notification in writing, for example, and especially with no alternative housing solution being proposed. All too often, the evicted Roma simply move to another unauthorised settlement. ECRI highlights the futility of such forced evictions and states that Roma should not be evicted “without the possibility of being rehoused in suitable accommodation.”
This latest report stands as a damning indictment of Italy’s failure to make amends for the excesses of the ‘Nomad Emergency’, and a confirmation that when it comes to discrimination in access to adequate housing, Italy needs to be held accountable for violating the rights of Roma guaranteed by EU legislation. The time is ripe for infringement proceedings.
