168 ITALY1

Authorities levelled the Roma camp in Casilino on 29 August. © Stefano Montesi

IHF FOCUS: Freedom of expression and the media; the judicial system and fair trail; conditions in prisons; intolerance, xenophobia and racial discrimination; protection of ethnic minorities; protection of asylum seekers and immigrants; women’s rights; rights of the child; homosexuals’ rights.

Legislation addressing dangerous pris- director of the publication was a member oners was made more restrictive, and the of the official Order of Journalists. In recent release of members of organized crime years, a referendum to abolish this com- raised public debate. Prison revolts focused pulsory order was not successful since less attention on overcrowding and the abuse than 50 percent of the electorate voted. of prisoners. Xenophobic attitudes were common and immigrants became the tar- Judicial System and Fair Trial gets of xenophobic acts. At the same time, On 10 February, Minister of Interior, some politicians stressed that ’s econo- Enzo Bianco presented a set of amend- my needs more immigrants. The Roma mi- ments to the legislation aimed at prevent- nority faced segregation and excessive ing a person who committed an exception- abuse by the police and other authorities. ally serious crime from leaving prison while his case is pending, and to limit the bene- Freedom of Expression and the Media fits available for such prisoners. Bianco’s Despite Article 21 of the Italian Consti- proposal provoked a reaction from the tution, according to which the press cannot Minister of Justice, Mr. Diliberto, who - on be subjected to authorisation or censor- 12 February - said that “Bianco had gone ship, Italy retained “post-fascist” legislation beyond his competence.” The Senate ap- on the press: no one was allowed to pub- proved the amendments on 6 March lish a magazine or newspaper unless the 2001. ITALY 169

On 18 November, Minister of Justice pass between two lines of wardens who Fassino opened an inquiry into “easy re- beat them brutally. On 3 May, the accused leases” from prison. The inquiry concerned were all arrested. On 4 May, an additional in particular the case of Giuseppe Castaldo, 100 warders were questioned for having a member of Camorra (a criminal organiza- given contradictory testimony. The inquiry tion similar to the Mafia and which is active was meant to assess whether anyone at in Naples and its surroundings). Neapolitan the Ministry of Justice knew what had been judges had released him against the advice happening in the prison. of the Office of the Prosecutor. The Minister On 25 June, prisoners in all the prisons announced that something would be done of the country staged a protest demanding immediately to avoid that other detainees amnesty. The Parliament was divided in its were released in the same way. On 19 No- opinion, but on 27 June the majority was in vember, it was announced that all Neapo- favour of pardoning prisoners in order to litan Camorra bosses could be released fol- solve the problem of overcrowding without lowing the termination of their preventive cancelling sentences. Many deputies, how- detention. A total of 125 people were in- ever, rejected the pardons, citing the pri- volved, including Francesco Schiavone and macy of public safety. his “lieutenants”. Since the trial began in On 1 July, there was a revolt in the July 1998 in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, 80 prison of Regina Coeli in Rome. Three pris- of the accused have already been released. oners, followed by 20 others, attacked the On 21 November, the Government ap- wardens with bars, demanding to be set proved a decree providing for different free. Twenty-five wardens and three prison- means of calculating the period of preven- ers were injured. tive detention. On 7 July, the Government proposed legislative measures to deal with the emer- Conditions in Prisons gency situation in prisons and the malfunc- Overcrowding was the most serious tioning of the judicial system: 4,000 pris- problem in Italian prisons in 2000, triggering oners should be released, aliens who had prisoners’ protests and revolts. According to committed crimes should be expelled im- official figures, there were 53,507 prisoners mediately, new jails should be built, and in July 2000, although the overall prison ca- new judges and prison personnel should pacity was only 42,749 in all the prisons be engaged. An expense of 3,000 billion li- combined. Nearly 24,000 prisoners were ras (U.S.$ 1.5 billion) in three years was ex- awaiting judgment, roughly 14,000 prison- pected. ers were non-EU citizens and some 6,000 However, on 22 September, the were serving a term shorter than two years. Government discovered that 1,060 billion On 3 April, prisoners of the Sassari jail liras allocated to build new prisons were in Sardinia protested because of over- not available. Some persons proposed that crowding and abuse in the prison: thirty of the sum should be drawn from the prison- them were “punished” in the presence of ers’ health fund. the director. On 2 May, a court opened an According to a report issued by the inquiry into alleged abuse by wardens. NGO “Antigone” in May, between 1991 Eighty-two wardens, the Regional Superin- and 1997, 237 wardens were charged with tendent Giuseppe della Vecchia, Director causing injuries, threatening or insulting Maria Cristina Di Marzio and the comman- prisoners; 129 were charged with violating der of the wardens faced charges following the law on narcotics; 66 were charged with a report – affirmed by prisoners and their abuse of authority; 24 were charged with families - that prisoners had been forced to culpable or wilful murder; and 13 were 170 ITALY charged with sexual abuse. In 2000, (also in charge of sports), Giovanna “Antigone” also reported serious abuse in Melandri decided that football matches the prisons of Secondigliano, Nuoro, could be interrupted if spectators used Parma, Orvieto, and Pianosa. racist or violent slogans.

Intolerance, Xenophobia and Racial Protection of Ethnic Minorities Discrimination Roma Minority 2 Numerous xenophobic acts were Anti-Romani hate speech and abuse recorded in 2000. against Roma were widespread in Italy in Roberto Tomelleri set fire to Brahid 2000. The political party fre- Wajiol, a Moroccan boy who was courting quently used racist and anti-Romani lan- his daughter, on 6 March in Verona. The guage in public statements. In the regional youth suffered third degree burns. The girl’s elections held on 16 April, the centre-right father, who was held for questioning, de- and extreme right, including the Lega Nord, clared: “I do not hate aliens.” swept the country with a majority. Their campaign featured explicitly anti-Romani On the evening of 20 March, support- messages. ers of a Rome football team threw Molotov In the town of Voghera, centre-right cocktails in the underground passage near candidate Aurelio Torriani distributed fliers the railway station “San Lorenzo“ in Rome. intended to discredit centre-left candidate Foreign street people often sleep there at Antonella Dagradi with the slogan: “The night; fortunately, there were no casualties. Gypsies will certainly vote for Antonella On 25 August, two 15-year-old boys Dagradi. Do you want to do the same?“ killed a prostitute from Ghana in Lonate Recent surveys indicate that many Ceppino, near Varese, to steal her bag. “We dislike and fear Roma, although wanted to commit a robbery to see what it they have little or no experience with them. feels like,” they explained. For many Italians, Roma are the archetype of unwanted “criminal“ immigrants. This On 13 October, the Lega Nord – an ex- sentiment reached fever pitch when ap- treme rightist political party - demonstrated proximately 10,000 Roma refugees arrived against plans to build a mosque in Lodi, in Italy during the summer of 1999, after near Milan. The party also joined being expelled from Kosovo by ethnic the demonstration and the number of the Albanians following the end of the NATO participants reached one thousand, many bombing and Yugoslav military action in the of whom displayed racist slogans. region. When dealing with cases of foreign There were no accurate figures on the adoptions, the Juvenile Court of Ancona number of Roma in Italy: local NGOs esti- ruled in some 60 cases that “international mated in late 2000 that there were between adoption is possible, but only of white- 60,000-90,000 Italian Romani citizens and skinned children”. According to judge 45,000-70,000 Roma born outside Italy or Luisianna del Conte, dark-skinned children born in Italy to immigrant parents, mainly could not integrate in the conservative- from Eastern Europe, especially the former minded environment of provincial Italy. On Yugoslavia. Many of the latter group had no 21 October, Minister for Social Affairs Livia legal status in Italy. Roma who managed to Turco deemed such rulings to be “misguid- legalise their status often possessed tempo- ed” and prejudicial. rary residence permits valid for various - but On 1 February, Minister of Interior Enzo exclusively short - periods of time, mostly Bianco and Minister for Arts and Culture between one and six months. ITALY 171

Roma lived segregated from non- identification papers; sexually abusive Romani Italians. In some areas, Roma were searches of women; failure to provide excluded and ignored, living in filthy and proper interpretation to immigrant Roma squalid conditions without basic infrastruc- accused of criminal acts; failure to provide tures. Their settlements were often called information concerning detained Roma; “illegal“ or “unauthorised“. They could be threats and violations of the right of as- evicted at any moment, and frequently sembly; and inadequate punishment for of- were. ficers who abuse their authority. While Italian authorities have expended In addition, anti-Romani hostility in Italy energy and resources on Roma, these ef- has found expression in discriminatory forts were not generally aimed at integrat- treatment by judicial authorities; violence ing Roma into Italian society. On the con- against Roma by non-state actors; discrimi- trary, Italy is the only country in Europe to natory treatment of Roma in the provision boast a systematic, publicly organised and of public services; the denial of the rights of sponsored network of ghettos aimed at de- Roma to education; and abuses of the right priving Roma of full participation in, or even to employment. Ultimately, Italian authori- contact or interaction with, Italian life. Such ties appeared intent on capitalising on the Roma, in Italian parlance, live in “authorised anti-Romani sentiment in Italy by abusively camps“ or ghettos. expelling Roma from the country. Underpinning the Italian Government’s In its Concluding Observations con- approach to Roma was the conviction that cerning Italy dated March 1999, the UN Roma are “nomads“. In the late 1980s and Committee on the Elimination of Racial early 1990s, many regions in Italy adopted Discrimination (CERD) strongly condem- laws aimed at the “protection of nomadic ned the treatment of Roma in Italy. Two cultures“ through the construction of segre- years after the CERD’s findings and elabo- gated camps. Italian authorities asserted rate list of recommendations, it is difficult to that Roma desires to live in flats or houses see any real effect of the CERD’s criticism. were inauthentic and relegated them to “camps for nomads“. Protection of Asylum Seekers and The description of Roma as “nomads“ Immigrants has not only been used in the act of seg- On 11 July, the Institute of Statistics an- regating Roma, but also in order to rein- nounced that there were 1,270,000 regu- force the popular idea that Roma are not lar immigrant residents in Italy, 13.8 per- Italians and do not belong in Italy. As such, cent more than in 1999. On 13 July, government offices addressing issues relat- Minister of Interior Enzo Bianco declared ed to Roma are called “Offices of Nomad that there were conditions to increase the Affairs“ and fall under the competence of immigration quota. The Governor of the the Department of Immigration. , Mr. Fazio, supported this idea In recent years the police and other au- for economic reasons, as long as public thorities have conducted abusive raids in safety and legality were guaranteed. Roma camps and police misconduct was According to the statistical report on commonplace. The European Roma Rights immigration issued by “Caritas”, there were Centre (IHF cooperating committee) has 137,000 new immigrants in Italy in 2000, documented numerous cases of police some 94,000 of whom had a regular job. abuse, including abusive raids, evictions It was generally easier for a foreigner to find and arbitrary destruction of property; abu- a legal job in , where 55 per- sive use of firearms; torture and physical cent of immigrants lived. abuse; discriminatory targeting of Roma by According to some estimates, about police; theft by authorities; confiscation of 500,000 illegal immigrants lived in Italy (in 172 ITALY addition to legal immigrants), a fact that for stricter checks of foreigners who en- triggered most social problems connected tered Italy, for security reasons. to immigration. On 13 August, a boat coming from Women’s Rights Turkey arrived in Crotone with 245 Kurd Parliament adopted a law providing for refugees on board, including 99 children. “parental leave” for both mothers and fa- Minister for Social Affairs Livia Turco spoke thers on 25 January. The new leave can be in favour of an asylum law consistent with taken until the child reaches the age of those of other European countries and un- eight, and both parents will be able to derlined the moral duty to help underage make use of it at the same time. refugees. The National Institute of Social Insu- On 20 July, it was officially announced rance (INPS) promoted an alternative ma- that foreigners committed most robberies ternity leave in 2000: pregnant women can now take maternity leave one month be- in central and northern Italy and that the fore the expected date of birth, instead of number of drug and prostitution networks the previous two months. This will allow led by foreigners was increasing. A survey them to be on leave longer after the birth conducted by Censis showed that 74 per- of the child. The total leave remained five cent of Italians associated crime with immi- months. grants, even though they also considered On 19 August, “Italia Lavoro“, a society immigrants “essential” to the national for the development of enterprises in economy. , published a report according On 2 November, Rita Errico, a judge of to which there remained significant region- the Fourth Civil Division at the Court of al differences in women’s chances of em- Milan, questioned the constitutionality of ployment. In Crotone (southern Italy), only Paragraph 14 of the Law on the Expulsion one out of every ten women was em- of Aliens. She decided not to confirm with- ployed, whereas eight out of ten women in 48 hours (as provided for by law) the were employed in Vicenza (northern Italy). detention of eight Albanian and Romanian illegal immigrants held in the pre-deporta- Rights of the Child tion centre in Via Corelli. According to Errico, the above-mentioned paragraph On 9 June, the police in Grosseto re- could contradict Article 13 of the Constitu- moved 17-month-old Martina from the tion, which guarantees personal freedom. custodial couple who had applied for her On 4 November, another judge of the adoption. The adoption was denied be- Court of Milan failed to confirm the deten- cause the couple was not married. The tion of eight aliens held in the pre-deporta- Minister for Social Affairs, Livia Turco, stated tion centre in Via Corelli. that such removing a child from custody On 2 November, the Court of Reggio did not safeguard minors’ interests. On 10 Emilia upheld the appeal of Nigerian foot- June, Francesca Ceroni, the judge of the ball player Ekong against the prohibition for Juvenile Court who had decided to remove aliens to play in the third division champi- Martina from the couple’s custody, asked to be transferred saying “I cannot put up with onship. Ekong referred to the “Turco- children and parents’ pain anymore.” Napolitano“ law on immigration, which sti- pulates equal working rights for aliens with The issue of paedophilia raised much legal residence in Italy. attention in Italy in 2000. On 13 November in Brescia, following On 23 August the newspaper Libero the murder of a jeweller by an illegal immi- published a list with the names of people grant, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi called accused of paedophilia. A dispute followed: ITALY 173

Stefano Rodotà, the Italian Guarantor of only to defend them against serious abus- Privacy, condemned the act saying that “the es but also to protect their rights in other use of newspapers as public pillory does fields. not have foundation in our Constitution.” On 27 September the Office of the Homosexuals’ Rights Prosecutor of Torre Annunziata discovered On 24 May, Prime Minister Amato de- an international network of paedophiles on scribed the Gay Pride Parade scheduled in the Internet connecting 1,700 people be- Rome for 8 July, in which about 200,000 tween Italy and Russia. homosexuals from all over the world were expected to take part, as “inconvenient.” After two years of investigation “Telefo- The statement was criticised by other no Azzurro“, an association which denoun- members of Government and by some ces abuse of minors, discovered an ex- partners of the ruling coalition. On 28 May, change network of paedophilic photos and the Mayor of Rome, following protests from videos. The Italian Television networks Rai 1 the Catholic Church, withdrew the prom- and Rai 3 broadcast some of the images in ised support of the City Council to the pa- their evening news programme, triggering a rade. However, on 30 May it was decided heated debate. The Directors of TG1, Gad that the Gay Pride Parade would indeed Lerner, and of TG3, Nino Rizzo Nervo had take place with the guarantee of services to apologise to the audience and resign. and safety measures, as well as financial - On 15 September, following cases of but not “official“ - support from the City paedophilia in August, the Government Council. Ultimately, many left wing politi- suggested that an Ombudsman’s office be cians, including members of the Govern- established for children in every region, not ment, participated in the parade.

Endnotes 1 Unless otherwise noted, based on the Italian Helsinki Committee, in Italy in 2000. Contributors: Barbara Baldacci, Ilaria Marini, Antonio Stango. 2 Based on European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Campland: Racial Segregation of Roma in Italy, 3 November 2000.