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HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CONCLUDES REVIEW OF ITALY'S REPORT ON COMPLIANCE WITH COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
17 July 1998
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AFTERNOON
HR/CT/98/13/Rev.1
17 July 1998
The Committee on Human Rights this afternoon concluded its consideration of a report on the implementation of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in Italy. The Committee recommended that Italy review its lengthy preventive detention system.
The Committee offered its preliminary concluding oral recommendations at the end of its one-day dialogue with officials from the Italian Government. The Italian delegation defended the Government’s report on the status of civil and political rights in the country.
Italy, as one of 140 States parties to the Covenant, must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the measures undertaken by that country to implement the provisions of the treaty. The Committee will offer its final and written observations and recommendations on the report towards the end of its three-week session, which concludes on 31 July.
When the Committee reconvenes on Monday, 20 July at 10 a.m., it will take up the report of Algeria.
Discussion of Report
In response to issues raised by Committee experts during the morning session, according to whom some United Nations bodies had stressed that there was a tendency in Italy to discriminate against persons of non-European origin, the Italian delegation said that the phenomenon had in fact been experienced like in other Western European countries.
As for alleged ill-treatment of foreigners arising from the defence police - the Carabinieri, the delegation said the statistics provided to the Committee showed that in the past four years, numerous complaints in connection with such alleged incidents had been received by the authorities and appropriate measures had been taken against the perpetrators.
The delegation explained that preventive detention was the period of time elapsing between the pre-trial phase and passing of the definitive sentence prior to three levels of jurisdiction. Its maximum length was fixed in the criminal code and varied from 2 to 6 years in the case of serious crimes.
With regards to speeches containing incitement to racial discrimination by politicians, the delegation said that when judging such offences, provisions on the immunity of parliamentarians - which had been substantially reduced - had to be taken into account.
Inspection of detention places was another issue raised by experts, to which the delegation said that the Ministry of Justice was responsible for appointing special inspectors whenever an incident took place. Members of the Parliament also the right to inspect prisons without any advance notice and submit a report on their findings.
Italy had been engaged in a vast campaign within the United Nations system in eliminating the death penalty worldwide, the Italian officials said. In Italy there were only eight persons serving life sentence out of a total of 50,093 prisoners.
Furthermore, illegal immigration remained to be a major problem and the Italian authorities had adopted legislative remedies to solve it, the delegation said. The law allowed the expulsion of persons who entered the country illegally. However, those who entered the country for the purpose of seeking asylum could be considered by a mixed commission made up of the Italian authorities and representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Any act of ill-treatment by any governmental force against any individual was considered as a crime within the definition of the Convention against Torture, the delegation said. Although torture was not explicitly defined in separate legislation, criminal acts committed by an official against a suspect or detainee to obtain confession were considered as acts of torture.
The Italian officials were questioned if the Government was considering withdrawing from some of its reservations on certain articles of the Covenant. One of Italy's reservations concerned
article 12, paragraph 4, of the Covenant, which stipulated that no one should be arbitrary deprived of the right to enter his own country. The delegation said that the reservation was to respect the constitutional prohibition of the entry into and sejour in the national territory of certain members of the former Royal family.
On the principle of equal pay for equal work between men and women, the delegation said that in 1993, the average yearly pay for men was 37.5 million Lira, while women received 30 million Lira for the same year. There was a 30 per cent difference which was mainly attributed to the denial of some enterprises to promote women to higher responsibilities, and to the refusal of the women themselves to adopt flexible work hours due to familial obligations.
Concerning the incident of maltreatment and torture of Somalis by Italian soldiers during their mission to that country under the aegis of the United Nations peace mission, the delegation said that the Italian Ministry of Defence had referred the case to the judicial authorities and the investigation was under way. In addition, arrangements had been made to hear witness, particularly from the individuals who were subjected to ill-treatment.
In response to the remaining written questions, the delegation noted that telephone taping was prohibited except when ordered by a judge for additional information on a person seriously suspected of a crime. However, a judge could refuse a request for taping by the Ministry of Interior if he or she found the reasons insufficient to do so.
As regards sexual harassment in the work place, the delegation recalled that new legislation had been adopted this year to combat this phenomenon. On the other hand, a commission was set up to promote the rights of women and to eliminate gender discrimination in the use of language. So far, women were under-represented in decision-making processes such as Parliament where only 8 per cent of members were women.
Several Committee members decried the unusually lengthy period of preventive detention and asked the Italian delegation to take note of their concern.
Preliminary Concluding Observations
In their preliminary concluding observations, Committee members congratulated the members of the Italian delegation for their considerable efforts to provide additional answers to the their queries.
Committee members considered as positive the role played by Italy's Constitutional Court. They lauded Italy's unreserved efforts in campaigning for the total elimination of the death penalty and even to abolish life imprisonment.
They, however, remarked that there was stagnation on the part of Italy in lifting the reservations it made on certain articles of the Covenant. They also said there was no Ombudsman at the national level; torture was not explicitly defined as crime in national legislation; there was a considerable disparity between women and men in labour fields; and preventive detention was excessively long and should be reviewed. Almost all those detained for excessively long periods were held up because of the slowness of the judicial system, the members said.
HR/CT/98/13/Rev.1
17 July 1998
The Committee on Human Rights this afternoon concluded its consideration of a report on the implementation of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in Italy. The Committee recommended that Italy review its lengthy preventive detention system.
The Committee offered its preliminary concluding oral recommendations at the end of its one-day dialogue with officials from the Italian Government. The Italian delegation defended the Government’s report on the status of civil and political rights in the country.
Italy, as one of 140 States parties to the Covenant, must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the measures undertaken by that country to implement the provisions of the treaty. The Committee will offer its final and written observations and recommendations on the report towards the end of its three-week session, which concludes on 31 July.
When the Committee reconvenes on Monday, 20 July at 10 a.m., it will take up the report of Algeria.
Discussion of Report
In response to issues raised by Committee experts during the morning session, according to whom some United Nations bodies had stressed that there was a tendency in Italy to discriminate against persons of non-European origin, the Italian delegation said that the phenomenon had in fact been experienced like in other Western European countries.
As for alleged ill-treatment of foreigners arising from the defence police - the Carabinieri, the delegation said the statistics provided to the Committee showed that in the past four years, numerous complaints in connection with such alleged incidents had been received by the authorities and appropriate measures had been taken against the perpetrators.
The delegation explained that preventive detention was the period of time elapsing between the pre-trial phase and passing of the definitive sentence prior to three levels of jurisdiction. Its maximum length was fixed in the criminal code and varied from 2 to 6 years in the case of serious crimes.
With regards to speeches containing incitement to racial discrimination by politicians, the delegation said that when judging such offences, provisions on the immunity of parliamentarians - which had been substantially reduced - had to be taken into account.
Inspection of detention places was another issue raised by experts, to which the delegation said that the Ministry of Justice was responsible for appointing special inspectors whenever an incident took place. Members of the Parliament also the right to inspect prisons without any advance notice and submit a report on their findings.
Italy had been engaged in a vast campaign within the United Nations system in eliminating the death penalty worldwide, the Italian officials said. In Italy there were only eight persons serving life sentence out of a total of 50,093 prisoners.
Furthermore, illegal immigration remained to be a major problem and the Italian authorities had adopted legislative remedies to solve it, the delegation said. The law allowed the expulsion of persons who entered the country illegally. However, those who entered the country for the purpose of seeking asylum could be considered by a mixed commission made up of the Italian authorities and representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Any act of ill-treatment by any governmental force against any individual was considered as a crime within the definition of the Convention against Torture, the delegation said. Although torture was not explicitly defined in separate legislation, criminal acts committed by an official against a suspect or detainee to obtain confession were considered as acts of torture.
The Italian officials were questioned if the Government was considering withdrawing from some of its reservations on certain articles of the Covenant. One of Italy's reservations concerned
article 12, paragraph 4, of the Covenant, which stipulated that no one should be arbitrary deprived of the right to enter his own country. The delegation said that the reservation was to respect the constitutional prohibition of the entry into and sejour in the national territory of certain members of the former Royal family.
On the principle of equal pay for equal work between men and women, the delegation said that in 1993, the average yearly pay for men was 37.5 million Lira, while women received 30 million Lira for the same year. There was a 30 per cent difference which was mainly attributed to the denial of some enterprises to promote women to higher responsibilities, and to the refusal of the women themselves to adopt flexible work hours due to familial obligations.
Concerning the incident of maltreatment and torture of Somalis by Italian soldiers during their mission to that country under the aegis of the United Nations peace mission, the delegation said that the Italian Ministry of Defence had referred the case to the judicial authorities and the investigation was under way. In addition, arrangements had been made to hear witness, particularly from the individuals who were subjected to ill-treatment.
In response to the remaining written questions, the delegation noted that telephone taping was prohibited except when ordered by a judge for additional information on a person seriously suspected of a crime. However, a judge could refuse a request for taping by the Ministry of Interior if he or she found the reasons insufficient to do so.
As regards sexual harassment in the work place, the delegation recalled that new legislation had been adopted this year to combat this phenomenon. On the other hand, a commission was set up to promote the rights of women and to eliminate gender discrimination in the use of language. So far, women were under-represented in decision-making processes such as Parliament where only 8 per cent of members were women.
Several Committee members decried the unusually lengthy period of preventive detention and asked the Italian delegation to take note of their concern.
Preliminary Concluding Observations
In their preliminary concluding observations, Committee members congratulated the members of the Italian delegation for their considerable efforts to provide additional answers to the their queries.
Committee members considered as positive the role played by Italy's Constitutional Court. They lauded Italy's unreserved efforts in campaigning for the total elimination of the death penalty and even to abolish life imprisonment.
They, however, remarked that there was stagnation on the part of Italy in lifting the reservations it made on certain articles of the Covenant. They also said there was no Ombudsman at the national level; torture was not explicitly defined as crime in national legislation; there was a considerable disparity between women and men in labour fields; and preventive detention was excessively long and should be reviewed. Almost all those detained for excessively long periods were held up because of the slowness of the judicial system, the members said.