EUROPEAN ROMA RIGHTS CENTER

1386 Budapest 62, P.O. Box 906/93, Hungary
		Phone: (36-1) 413-2200; Fax: (36-1) 413-2201
E-mail: office@errc.org
http://errc.org

United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
8-14, Avenue de la Paix
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland

Budapest, June 29, 2001

Dear Committee Member,

The European Roma Rights Center (“ERRC”), an international public interest law organisation based in Budapest, respectfully submits published documentary information concerning the human rights situation of Roma in Italy for consideration by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (“the Committee”) at its 59th session in the period July 30- August 17, 2001.

During extensive field research and regular monitoring of the human rights situation of Roma in Italy since 1997, ERRC has documented what we believe to be significant breaches of Articles 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (“the Convention”). ERRC’s concerns are elaborated in the enclosed 114-page report  entitled “Campland: Racial Segregation of Roma in Italy” (hereafter “ERRC Country Report on Italy”), published in November 2000. In particular, we would like to call your attention to the following:

By developing a housing policy for Roma premised on the racist and incorrect characterisation of them as “nomads,” the Italian Government has fostered the segregation of Roma into inhuman and degrading “camps” to which no other segment of the population is confined. Alone among all population groups, Roma in Italy – be they immigrant Roma from the territory of former Yugoslavia and Romania, or “Italian” Roma and Sinti – are almost invariably relegated to a life in camps located far from most city centres, thoroughfares, and public services. The entirely predictable result of such intentional racial segregation, and of the racist assumptions that underlie it, is the marginalisation of Roma from mainstream political, economic and social life, and the denial of equality in public spheres from housing to criminal justice, education and employment. (For details, please see ERRC Country Report on Italy, pp. 17-22).

Following its most recent review of Italy’s compliance with the Convention, in March 1999, the Committee expressed concern “at the situation of many Roma who, ineligible for public housing, live in camps outside major Italian cities,” and concluded that “[i]n addition to a frequent lack of basic facilities, the housing of Roma in such camps leads not only to a physical segregation of the Roma community from Italian society, but to political, economic and cultural isolation as well.” ERRC notes that notwithstanding the 2,5 years that have elapsed since the Committee expressed these concerns, the housing situation of Roma in Italy remains unaltered. 

In fact, authorities in Italy have not only failed to initiate measures aiming at abolishing the camp system, but have continued to create new camps to which Roma from previously existing camps are being transferred. Despite the authorities’ assertions that these transfers are aimed at providing better living conditions for Roma, ERRC research indicates that conditions in the overwhelming majority of camps continue to be substandard and inhabitants are often forced to live without running water, toilets or electricity.

The Government’s racist policy of “Roma equal nomads” is further compounded by the rejection, procrastination, and excessive delay of processing residence permit applications by immigrant Roma, including Roma who have been in Italy continuously for a number of years and their children born in Italy. Those few Roma who have managed to legalise their status have received permits only for limited – and exclusively short – periods of time. The residence permit of longest validity that ERRC came across in the course of a January 1999 field mission belonged to a Romani man who had lived in Italy for 30 years; he had a two-year residence permit. (For details, please see ERRC Country Report on Italy, pp. 18-19).

While noting that the Government report submitted to the Committee (CERD/C/406/Add.1) contains a subsection on the situation of Roma, ERRC believes that the information provided in the report does not present an adequate picture of the human rights situation of Roma in Italy. Most notably, the report fails to acknowledge the widespread and systematic policy of racial segregation of Roma as well as the pervasive abuse and discrimination of Roma by public officials in all spheres of social life. While the report touches upon the issue of intolerance on the part of civilians with respect to Roma, it does not elaborate on any judicial or other measures taken to remedy this situation. 

ERRC additionally notes that the Government has failed to take into consideration the concerns expressed by the Committee in 1999 concerning the exclusion of Roma from the scope of Law No. 482 entitled “Norms concerning the protection of linguistic and historical minorities.” This law, approved by the Chamber of Deputies in June 1998 only after Roma had been explicitly excluded from its application, was adopted after lengthy delays in December 1999. 

ERRC further notes that the Government has failed to comply with the Committee’s recommendation to establish a national human rights commission to address the numerous pressing concerns relating to racial discrimination. This failure, compounded by the ambiguity and resulting inadequacy of Italy’s legislative provisions pertaining to racial discrimination, significantly hinders the effective protection against – and the adequate redress for – racial discrimination. (For details, please see ERRC Country Report on Italy, pp. 89-92).

Roma in Italy are commonly the victims of racially-motivated police violence. Police abuse of Roma in Italy takes various forms, ranging from beatings during arrest or in custody to shootings to the unlawful confiscation of personal belongings under the threat of physical abuse. What they have in common, however, is the fact that they occur with full impunity. Law enforcement officials are rarely, if ever, disciplined or prosecuted for anti-Romani violence. The case of Natali Marolli, an 8-year-old Romani girl who was shot and permanently injured by police officers near Florence in May 1998, is just one example of this trend; ERRC is not aware of any disciplinary measures taken against the officers involved. (For details, please see ERRC Country Report on Italy, pp. 34-50). 

Roma in Italy are also frequently subjected to unlawful police raids – armed assaults in the early morning hours during which homes are searched, contents ransacked, inhabitants harassed or subjected to excessive force and other forms of arbitrary abuse. Romani victims and witnesses report that police rarely inform them of the reasons of the raid and that when they inquire about the purpose or the grounds of the action, officers either refuse to answer or react with abusive, racial slurs. Testifying about a police raid in the “Via Salviati” camp on the periphery of Rome on April 1, 2000, 25-year-old T.K. told the ERRC that police arrested a group of Roma but did not bring them to the police station right away. Instead, the detained Roma were locked in a nearby garage, where they were kept for two hours during which time they were made to lie face down on the ground.

As indicated above, police raids are often aimed at evicting or transferring the inhabitants to another camp. During spring and summer last year, a series of raids carried out by police officers and other municipal authorities in Rome resulted in the dismantling of the infamous “Casilino 700” camp, located on the outskirts of Rome. During these operations, police demolished shacks and destroyed personal belongings of Roma. Attempts of the inhabitants to allow journalists and human rights professionals in the camp during the operations were reportedly met with violence and drawing of weapons on part of the police. Despite authorities’ assertions that the dismantling of the “Casilino 700” camp was aimed at providing better accommodation for the Roma by transferring them to camps where conditions were better, ERRC research indicates that most of the Roma were not transferred to other camps but simply left to fend for themselves. Others, meanwhile, were transferred to camps with far worse living conditions, such as the “Via Salone” camp, where electricity and other basic infrastructure are entirely lacking and rats are evident. (For details, please see ERRC Country Report on Italy, pp. 23-34).

Police raids have also been aimed at mass expulsion of Roma from Italy. To take one example, on March 3, 2000, approximately 400 officers from the municipal and state police conducted a pre-dawn blitz at the “Tor de’Cenci” camp near Rome, inhabited mainly by Roma from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which resulted in the summary deportation of at least 36 Roma. While dismantling the “Tor de’ Cenci” camp, officials reportedly destroyed property belonging to Roma and physically abused several individuals. Again, journalists and monitors were barred from witnessing the operation and were not allowed to observe the subsequent deportation at the airport. According to the Italian non-governmental organisation “ARCI,” 19-year-old Behara Omerovic was among those deported to Bosnia, notwithstanding the fact that she was in the fifth month of pregnancy, while 16-year-old Sanela Sejdovic was sent to Bosnia with her infant daughter, born only a few weeks earlier, in mid-February 2000. (For details, please see ERRC Country Report on Italy, pp. 51-55).

In addition to systematic violence and abuse by law enforcement officials, Roma in Italy are also commonly the victims of unremedied racially-motivated violence by non-state actors. Like police abuse, most cases of racist violence against Roma by civilians go unpunished and the victims are left without remedy for the violations they have suffered. In March 1999, the Committee expressed concern about the “continuation of incidents of racial intolerance, including attacks against foreigners […] and Roma people, which are sometimes not recognized by the authorities as having a racial motivation or are not prosecuted.” ERRC has documented instances of brutal and degrading treatment of Roma by civilians, including episodes of mob violence targeting entire Romani communities. In one such incident, on June 18, 1999, a mob of local non-Roma attacked the Romani community in Scampia near Naples and set on fire the homes of the approximately 1000 Roma residing in the area. Victims reported that local police failed to intervene to prevent the attack, despite several calls to the emergency services. Approximately 200 inhabitants of the camp returned to their destroyed homes the following day under police protection. Locals, however, continued to throw firebombs into the smoldering barracks throughout the day and evening, despite the presence of the police. According to information provided to the ERRC by local police on July 19, 2000, an investigation into the incident was closed shortly after it was opened in June 1999, with no charges brought against a single individual for the massive arson and looting. (For details, please see ERRC Country Report on Italy, pp. 72-75).

Roma in Italy also face discrimination with respect to a broad range of rights to which non-Roma in Italy are entitled, most egregiously and systematically, the right to equal treatment before law enforcement and judicial authorities, housing, education, and access to public accommodations and services. 

The Committee’s conclusions following its March 1999 review specifically recommended the Government to “strengthen its efforts towards preventing and prosecuting incidents of racial intolerance and discrimination” against Roma, including ill-treatment of Roma in detention. Information gathered by ERRC indicates that Romani defendants are subjected to pre-trial detention more often than non-Roma, and receive disproportionately severe sentences. Since most Roma in Italy – and only Roma – live in camps, and camp addresses are not considered official, Romani defendants are placed in pre-trial detention on flight-prevention grounds even for minor infractions for which non-Roma are routinely released. For example, on February 18, 1999, in denying a request for pre-trial release on the part of three Romani men detained on charges of burglary, Judge Antonio Crivelli in Florence highlighted what he referred to as “the risk of flight due to the fact that they are nomads without stable housing […].” (For details, please see ERRC Country Report on Italy, p. 50).

In the field of education, the Government’s failure to eradicate racial segregation of Roma in camps continues to severely hinder the access of Romani children to adequate education. Countless school-age Romani children in Italy are denied the right to attend schools altogether, as their camps are located far from schools or school transportation services. Thus, coupled with the repeated, violent early-morning raids resulting in the destruction of homes and property of Roma by police, the racially-segregated housing to which Roma are confined has effectively resulted in Romani children being denied the right to education. Those Romani children who do attend schools, meanwhile, face a series of racially-motivated obstacles, from prejudice on part of non-Romani parents who do not want their children attending school with “Gypsies,” to bullying by non-Romani classmates, to stereotyping by teachers and school administrators who perpetuate myths of “genetically” lower intelligence levels among Romani children. (For details, please see ERRC Country Report on Italy, pp. 78-83).

Discriminatory treatment of Roma in the provision of, and access to, goods and services available to the public, is also commonplace. ERRC is aware of several cases in which cafes and other public places throughout Italy posted signs at their entrance stating, “No Gypsies.” On June 2, 2000, staff at a café in the Via della Mercede in Rome refused to allow entry to an ERRC volunteer. After a brief discussion, the staff member apologised, and explained that he had thought the ERRC volunteer was a “Gypsy.” (For details, please see ERRC Country Report on Italy, pp. 76-77).

Finally, ERRC notes that anti-Romani racism rampant in Italian society is fostered by frequent inflammatory statements by Italian officials and politicians. On May 17, 2000, Paolo Frigerio, mayor of Cernusco sul Naviglio near Milan, made a widely publicised statement in which he promised to pay 5 million Italian lire (approximately 2,500 US dollars) of public local government money to anyone willing to spray manure on the area where a group of immigrant Roma were temporarily residing in “his” town. According to the mayor, “a bath of manure is the only way to even the score with the Gypsies, an act of justice equal to what they leave us when they move on.” ERRC is not aware of any public official in Italy who has been publicly criticised – let alone brought to justice – for acts of racial incitement against Roma or other minorities. (For details, please see ERRC Country Report on Italy, pp. 8-12).

In view of these deficiencies, the Government should adopt comprehensive legislation expressly prohibiting racial discrimination in all fields of public life and providing civil, criminal and administrative remedies for breach thereof; establish an effective enforcement body empowered both legally and through the provision of adequate resources to effectively secure full compliance with the new law; remedy the exclusion of Roma from existing legislation pertaining to minorities; abolish its policy of racial segregation of Roma in housing and eliminate its attendant effects in other fields, in particular education; discipline and prosecute police and others for racially-motivated violence and other crimes against Roma; adopt effective measures to prevent and punish manifestations of racial bias in the justice system; conduct systematic monitoring of access of Roma and other minorities to education, housing, employment, health-care and social services, and establish a mechanism for collecting ethnic data in these fields; and at the highest levels, speak out against racial discrimination against Roma and others, and make clear that racism will not be tolerated.

We hope that the documentation provided by the ERRC on the situation of Roma in Italy will assist the Committee in examining Italy’s compliance with the Convention. 

Sincerely yours,

Dimitrina Petrova, 
Executive Director