Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination discusses Lao People's Democratic Republic and Italy with NGOs

Committee on the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination

27 February 2012

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this morning held an interactive dialogue with non-governmental organizations from Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Italy. The reports of those two countries will be reviewed by the Committee this week.

Representatives of non-governmental organizations in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic raised a number of issues concerning the situation of indigenous minorities, saying that the Hmong population faced systematic violence and discrimination by the Lao Government. Deforestation was affecting the rights of indigenous people. Ethnic minorities were often subjected to forced displacement. Young girls and women faced a high risk of sexual trafficking.

Speaking about the situation in Italy, non-governmental organizations raised the issue of discrimination against Roma people and other migrants and asylum seekers. There was no legal aid provided to migrants and asylum seekers. There was also a lack of will from the authorities to address hate and racist speech efficiently. Children were also victims of discrimination in Italy and in order to eliminate regional inequalities, the State should describe the basic level of children’s rights to be respected throughout the territory.

Speaking during the discussion were representatives from the Alliance for Democracy in Laos, Indigenous, Congress of World Hmong People, Hmong Chaofa States of Laos, Fondazione Basso, Sezione Internationale, Volontariato Internationale per lo Sviluppo, Gruppo di Lavoro per la Convention on the Rights of the Child, Associazione Antigone, Associazione per gli Studi Giuridici sull'Immigrazione, Open Society Justice Initiative, and Unione Forense per la Tutela dei Diritti Umani.

The next meeting of the Committee will take place on Tuesday, 28 February at 3 p.m. when the Committee will begin its consideration of the combined sixteenth to eightieth periodic report of Lao People’s Democratic Republic (CERD/C/LAO/16-18).

Statements on Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Alliance for Democracy in Laos said that the Lao Government violated several articles of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. There was no political freedom or free elections in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The Constitution of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic stated that the ruling party was the main political party. On the situation of women in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, women were often victims of sexual exploitation, forced labour, and human trafficking, and often contracted sexually transmissible diseases. A high number of young people faced unemployment, and therefore turned to violence, or tried to move to neighbouring countries. This situation led to an increase of human trafficking.

Indigenous said that deforestation was a giant issue affecting the rights of indigenous people. The lack of freedom of expression constituted one of the main issues in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and was a major violation of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. There was also a lack of information on the international convention ratified by the Government, and the population was therefore not aware of its rights.

Congress of World Hmong People said that massacres and murders of indigenous Hmong people, including women and children, were still ongoing in the Xaysombun Administrative Zone territory in the Phou Bia Mountain area. Poisonous chemical agents had been used against Hmong people, including children, leading to severe health consequences for the population. The goal of those attacks, led by the Laos Army and Vietnamese Military battalions, was to wipe out the Hmong in the region completely by 2015. The social and cultural rights of the Hmong people were constantly threatened.

Hmong Chaofa States of Laos said that it had evidence of systematic violations of the rights of the Hmong people living in the jungle, including murder by the Government.

Questions by Experts

REGIS DE GOUTTE, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur for Lao People’s Democratic Republic, asked what were the ethnic communities represented by the non-governmental organizations that took the floor. He also asked for more details about cases of rape and abuse perpetrated by the Governement in 2004, and about the official inquiry concluding that those allegations were false and only intended to discredit the image of the Government. He then asked for details on the trafficking of young girls in Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Mr. De Goutte also asked for more details about whether or not the Government planned on establishing a national human rights institution. He asked about forced displacement of ethnic groups for the realization of economic projects.

A Committee Expert asked whether the Government of Lao People’s Democratic Republic recognized in its legislation the concept of indigenous peoples. Another Expert asked about the situation of Hmong refugees in the country. The Hmong population were historically the minority the most subjected to racial discrimination. Many Hmong people had been displaced and now lived in difficult conditions.

Response from Non-Governmental Organizations

Alliance for Democracy in Laos said that there were 50 ethnic groups in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and that it had a mandate to represent them all. A national human rights institution would be an important mechanism for the protection of the rights of the Lao people, but nothing had been done so far.

On the recognition of the concept of indigenous peoples, a speaker said that the Government did not recognize this concept, although many people did consider themselves as indigenous.

Hmong people had been forcibly displaced for the construction of a dam. This had been done disregarding the rights of minorities and disregarding the impact of this construction on the environment. Indigenous people living in the mountains or the forest were often displaced and deprived of their traditional ways of life.

Statements on Italy

Fondazione Basso, Sezione Internationale said that the Italian National Human Rights Institution suffered some weaknesses in comparison to the Paris Principles, particularly regarding the choosing of its President, the publication of its reports, and its independence and impartiality. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination should recommend that the Government of Italy reform the institution in compliance with the Paris Principles.

Volontariato Internationale per lo Sviluppo said that the Ministry of Education of Italy had not set a monitoring mechanism to measure the effects of its youth policies. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination should recommend that the Italian Government improve human rights education and training, and establish important reforms of the educational system.

Gruppo di Lavoro per la Convention on the Rights of the Child was concerned about children being victims of discrimination in Italy. To eliminate regional inequalities, the State should describe the basic level of children’s rights to be respected throughout the territory. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination should ask the Italian Government to ensure that all the children in Italy benefitted from the same level of rights. Children with disabilities had no defined status, which made it difficult to address their particular needs. There was a lack of information on the number of children with disabilities who left school with no qualifications.

Associazione Antigone said that racial discrimination occurred in Italian prisons. That was closely linked to the awful conditions of detention and dramatic overcrowding of Italian prisons, which did not meet international standards of human rights. The majority of foreign nationals were detained in protective custody, and more frequently than Italians. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination should recommend that the Government of Italy prevent the high concentration of foreign attendance in a small number of prisons.

Associazione per gli Studi Giuridici sull'Immigrazione said that the legal aid system in Italy was not working on several levels, including regarding legal assistance to asylum seekers and to stateless people. The conditions of life inside detention centres were very bad, in particular the detention system for migrants. The situation in Lampedusa was an example of this.

Open Society Justice Initiative said that since 2008 Italy had been under a state of emergency to face the waves of migration from Africa or Eastern Europe. Italy had violated several articles of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Roma community had been the object of specific measures that had led to hundreds of evictions throughout the country. Roma people were not allowed to contest those decisions through the judicial system. The people affected by the emergency measures were not entitled to financial compensation. Criminal sanctions for hate speech were almost never implemented. The system of legal aid was really poor. The organizations who wanted to provide the victims with that legal aid had to register with two ministries, which was disproportionate. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination should adopt recommendations on the issue of Roma people, and on the need to improve the procedures addressing hate speech and racial discrimination.

Unione Forense per la Tutela dei Diritti Umani said that political discourse sometimes fuelled the practice of discrimination or hate speech in Italia. There were more and more racist groups on Italian social networks, and a lack of control over the Internet.

Questions by Experts

NOURREDINE AMIR, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur for Italy, emphasized that the issue of Roma people was a very important issue, not only in Italy but everywhere in Europe, and asked what the attitude of the European Court of Human Rights was on this issue.

Committee Experts asked what happened to irregular Roma camps, had they been dismantled? What happened to the regular settlements? Had the past year’s events in North Africa led to an increase in the number of migrants in Italy, and had this led to an increase of human rights violations? A Committee Expert asked what the human rights situation of unaccompanied minors and African descendents were.

A Committee Expert asked how non-governmental organizations thought a national human rights institution in compliance with the Paris Principles would help them to address human rights violations occurring in Italy in a better way.

An Expert asked whether the recent change of Government in Italy had led to an improvement of the situation regarding hate speech in the country.

Response from Non-Governmental Organizations

In response to the question on the situation of the Roma population, a speaker said that the Government had adopted a specific policy on Roma that had contributed the segregation of the Roma population in Italy. The Government was targeting this one ethnic group, and was conducting discriminatory identification controls of Roma people. The European Court of Human Rights was not an efficient tool, particularly because of the very long time it took to adopt its decisions. The new Government was just a temporary one, and no changes had been noticed so far. Two days after the new Government was in place, the highest Italian Court had decided that the targeted measures against Roma people had no discriminatory intent, but only a discriminatory effect.

There had been both authorised and unauthorised Roma camps targeted by dismantlement measures. The Government had not provided housing solutions for the people who were moved. Evicted people were concentrated in camps. Very few public housing units had been provided to evicted people.

The absence of minimal standard for social services had a negative impact on children, and more particularly on illegal migrant children.

In response to the “Arab Spring,” many asylum seekers had arrived from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. They had not benefitted from the appropriate protection from the Italian Government. It was in practice impossible for those people to raise their situation before Italian courts, because of the lack of free legal aid provided to them.

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