COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD CONSIDERS SECOND PERIODIC REPORT OF ITALY

The Committee on the Rights of the Child examined today a second periodic report of Italy, questioning a Government delegation on policies, programmes, funding, and educational opportunities provided for children, among other matters.
Responding, the delegation said, among other things, that the Government was in close contact with the non-governmental organizations working with the Roma; that large families and families with disabled children received financial assistance; that an inclusive educational system was being promoted to reduce the number of school dropouts; and that a centre had been established to monitor sexual exploitation of children and to fight against paedophilia.
Introducing the report, Roberto Maroni, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of Italy, told the Committee that since the submission of the country's initial report in 1995, progress had been made and the nation's children were better off. Mr. Maroni added that Italy was one of the leading providers of funds for international efforts to aid children involved in armed conflicts.
Other members of the Italian delegation were Alessandro Fallavollita, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Giovanni Daverio, Alberto Colella, Adriana Ciampa, Maura Campagnano, Matteo Mauri, Mara Cardona Albini, Luca Spinello and Riccardo Poli, of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs; Franca Zacco, Sonia Viale and Donatella Caponetti, of the Ministry of Justice; Colomba Iacontino, of the Ministry of Health; Alessandra D'Aichelburg, of the Ministry of National Education; and Cristina Freguja, of the Public Statistics Institute.
Italy, as one of the 191 States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, must present periodic reports to the Committee on national efforts to improve the situation of children.
When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Friday, 17 January, it is scheduled to devote the whole day in private session to the consideration of draft concluding observations on country reports reviewed earlier this week.
Second periodic report of Italy
The report (document CRC/C/70/Add.13) reviews the country's main recent activities with regard to child rights. It describes how the Convention has been implemented since Italy's ratification in May 1991. It gives information on how the law defines the child and on how the general principles of the Convention are given legal effect, and it reviews the situation of civil rights and freedoms and the status of the family in Italy.
The report notes that Italian legislation for minor-age citizens appears to be satisfactory, but in spite of this, the situation of children and adolescents is not entirely without its dark side. Rights that may be recognized in theory are not always rights that people actually enjoy; the needs of children growing up are not always being met; and the process of creating a personal sense of identity is not always made easier or respected.
To effectively defend the rights of the child, the Italian Government, Parliament and all local institutions have in recent years attempted to come up with a general policy on children and adolescents, the report states.
Introduction of Report
ROBERTO MARONI, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of Italy, told the Committee that since the submission of Italy's initial report, there had been progressive improvements in the rights and the conditions of children. Three fundamental laws had been issued recently to promote children's rights, among them a measure allowing the establishment of a national fund for childhood and adolescence to finance projects focusing on children, teenagers and their families, and a law to fight sexual exploitation of minors.
Mr. Maroni said that in 2001, Italy ratified International Labour Office (ILO) Convention no. 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, and was one of the main supporters of the ILO-IPEC project to prevent exploitation of child labour, contributing 6 million Euros in 2002 for programmes in India, Central America and Albania. The Italian trade unions, in collaboration with the business associations, had also raised over 1 million Euros to support the ILO and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in their efforts to implement programmes for the elimination of child labour in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.
A new immigration law passed on 30 July 2002 contained a number of provisions regarding children, the Minister said: it prohibited the expulsion of foreign minors; it authorized Juvenile Courts to grant a residence visa for those leaving Juvenile Penal Institutes who had demonstrated "participation in social assistance and integration programmes"; and it allowed the establishment of a "Committee for Foreign Minors" to protect the rights of minors temporarily admitted to Italy. A campaign to provide information and generate support for immigrant families against female genital mutilation also had been implemented last year.
Mr. Maroni said legislation ensuring more effective and severe punishment for cases of violence, abuse and exploitation of minors had also been approved. A new law covered sex tourism and punished Italian nationals committing sex crimes abroad, as well as those organizing and promoting sex tourism. A number of Italian nationals had recently been charged and condemned in Italian court for committing sexual abuses of children abroad. New measures also had been adopted to combat violence and abuse within the family.
Italy was one of the leading funders of research projects for actions aimed at countering the tragic phenomenon of children involved in armed conflicts, Mr. Maroni said. The country also was also active in various European Union initiatives relating to children's rights, and it was supporting a project on the establishment of a network of European centres on children and adolescents.
Quality education had become one of the main targets of the Italian Government over the past few years, Mr. Maroni said. The situation of Gypsy students was particularly difficult, as they included groups of foreigners, such as Romanis, and some Italian citizens of Sinti and Camminati origins. Along with institutional actions focusing on the promotion of the right to education for all students and aimed at aiding cultural integration, the Italian Ministry of Education had promoted the training of cultural mediators from the Gypsy community. It also had implemented pilot projects for remote education for specific groups of Gypsy students.
Discussion
Committee Experts raised a number of questions under the main topics of implementation of the rights in the Convention and the definition of the child. These queries dealt among other things with regional disparities and their impact on the rights of the child; the role of the National Observatory; data on budgetary allocationw for the promotion and protection of child rights; the achievements of the national plan of action for children and adolescents; the nature and number of complaints lodged with the office of the Ombudsman; and the monitoring and coordinating of the activities of the various Government ministries dealing with child rights.
Responding, members of the Italian delegation said, among other things, that the main coordinator of activities relating to the rights of children was the Government in collaboration with regional authorities. Central and regional authorities regularly met to discuss the situation of children and to evaluate the progress achieved. Since each region was financially autonomous, child-related activities were also financed by local authorities.
The main coordinator of national policy on the rights of the child was the National Observatory, which was headed by the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, the delegation said. All relevant parties, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), were represented as members of the Observatory. Among the functions of the Observatory were the preparation of an integrated information service and data collection on children.
The Government was preparing a special national plan of action intended to implement the decisions of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on children, the delegation said. The plan would be integrated into the national plan of action for children and adolescents.
Committee Experts raised further questions on the main topics of general principles of the Convention; civil rights and freedoms; family environment and alternative care; and basic health and welfare. The queries concerned, among other things, access to health and education by Roma children who lived in camps; xenophobic attitudes towards Roma children; measures taken to prevent the practice of cloning; the rate of abortion among foreign girls residing in the country; the participation of children in municipal councils; the legal situation of children born out of wedlock; allegations of police brutality against minorities; bullying in schools; the conditions of foster care, and procedures for child placement.
Members of the Italian delegation said among other things that the Government was in close contact with the non-governmental organizations working with the Roma people.
Cloning was not a problem at this actual stage, and a group of scientists was elaborating guidelines on that issue, the delegation said. The Government was also contemplating drafting a law in connection with human cloning.
Any police maltreatment and brutality could be punished and the victim compensated, the delegation said. It was rare that children were subjected to police brutality.
On a question on parental responsibility and Government assistance, the delegation said families with disabled children and with many children received financial assistance from the Government. Children from low-income families received allowances to help them attend kindergarten and pre-school institutions. Other measures were also taken by the Government to protect and enhance the family and environment.
The number of children in foster care in 1999 was 10,000, and many of those children returned to their families of origin once the temporary problems that had led to their placements with foster care were resolved, the delegation said. Generally, one in every thousand Italian children could be found in foster care.
Because of the recognition by fathers and mothers of children born out of wedlock, their status had been improved, the delegation said. Even without recognition by fathers of their children born outside marriage, such children were not subjected to any form of discrimination.
Although a protocol had been signed between the Italian State and the Roman Catholic Church, religious teaching in schools was optional, the delegation said. Children of other faiths could be excused from attending religious classes.
The Committee went on to query the Italian delegation on issues related to education, leisure and cultural activities; and special measures. Committee Experts asked, among other things, about the situation of migrant children and the steps taken by the Government to minimize racist incidents against foreign children; why children were imprisoned with adults; what was done to stop substance use and abuse, including of alcohol and tobacco; the proportion of disabled children attending regular schools; the reason for what appeared to be a high number of school dropouts; whether there was economic exploitation of children; and what was done about child beggars.
The Italian delegation said among other things that the Government was making more efforts to reduce incidents of bullying in schools and to avoid the negative consequences resulting from that form of violence. A study was also being carried out at European level to deal with the problem of violence in schools.
Italy had been promoting an inclusive educational system to reduce the number of students dropping out, the delegation said. Special allowances were allocated to parents who were unable to send their children to school because of difficult economic circumstances. Other means of support were the provision of textbooks and other educational materials free of charge to poor children.
A centre had been established to monitor sexual exploitation of children and to fight against paedophilia, the delegation said. Periodic reports on commercial sexual exploitation would be submitted to Parliament.
At present, there were 7,825 unaccompanied children in Italy, of whom 70 per cent were from Albania, the delegation said.
Preliminary Concluding Remarks
MOUSHIRA KHATTAB, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur for the report of Italy, thanked the members of the delegation for the valuable information they had provided to the Committee. She said the dialogue had been fruitful and had given a clear picture of the child rights situation in the country. The State had made positive efforts to improve the health and educational situations of children. The task of coordination and monitoring of efforts to help children should be given special attention so that progress could continue to be achieved and effectively measured.