Civil Society Monitoring on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy in ITALY
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Civil Society Monitoring on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy in ITALY in 2012 and 2013 DECADE OF ROMA INCLUSION 2005-2015 Civil Society Monitoring on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy in ITALY in 2012 and 2013 Prepared by a civil society coalition comprising the following organisations Associazione 21 luglio (lead organisation) Fondazione Giovanni Michelucci – Research and Projects in social spaces n Associazione Amalipé Romanò Written by Simonetta Bormioli n Angela Tullio Cataldo n Massimo Colombo Coordinated by the Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation in cooperation with the Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma Program of the Open Society Foundations DECADE OF ROMA INCLUSION 2005-2015 www.romadecade.org DECADE OF ROMA INCLUSION 2005-2015 2 Published by Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation Teréz körút 46. 1066 Budapest, Hungary www.romadecade.org Design and layout: www.foszer-design.com Proofreading: Marianne Powell ©2014 by Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any forms or by any means without the permission of the Publisher. ISSN: 2064-8448 All civil society monitoring reports are available at www.romadecade.org/civilsocietymonitoring Civil SocietyCivil Monitoring This report was prepared by a civil society coalition comprising the following organisations: Associazione 3 21 luglio (Lead organisation, Roma), Fondazione Giovanni Michelucci – Researches and Projects in social spaces (Fiesole, Firenze) and the Associazione Amalipé Romanò (Firenze). The lead researcher and project manager italy of the coalition is Simonetta Bormioli (Associazione 21 luglio). The authors of the report are: Simonetta Bormioli (Associazione 21 luglio – lead researcher, author of Chap- ter 1, 3, 5), Angela Tullio Cataldo (researcher – Associazione 21 luglio, author of Chapter 2, 4), Massimo Colombo (Fondazione Giovanni Michelucci, author of Chapter 6), with the scientific supervision of Sabrina Tosi Cambini (Osservatorio sulla condizione socio-abitativa dei Rom e Sinti in Toscana – Fondazione Gio- vanni Michelucci; Università degli Studi di Verona). The following researchers and monitors have been involved: Antonio Ciniero, Federica Floridi, Roberta Greco, Demir Mustafà, Ivana Nikolic, Daniele Panaroni, Fabio Provenzano. The following organisations have been involved in advising on the report: the Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation, the Central European University’s Department of Public Policy, the European Roma Rights Centre, Habitat for Humanity, the Roma Education Fund, and from the Open Society Foundations: Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma program and the Roma Health Project. In 2013–2014, the Decade Secretariat has supported reports from civil society coalitions in eight countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia, and the United Kingdom. In the pilot year of 2012, reports from the following countries were supported: Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain. In the reports, civil society coalitions supplement or present alternative information to Decade Progress Reports submitted by Participating Governments in the Decade of Roma Inclusion and to any reports submitted by State parties to the European Commission on implementation of their NRIS. These reports are not meant to substitute for quantitative monitoring and evaluation by State authorities but to channel local knowledge into national and European policy processes and reflect on the real social impact of gov- ernment measures. The civil society reports provide additional data to official ones, proxy data where there is not official data, or alternative interpretation of published data. The project is coordinated by the Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation in cooperation with Open Society Foundation’s Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma program. Funding for the project comes from the OSF Roma Initiatives Office. TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 Executive Summary 7 italy Recommendations 17 List of Abbreviations 23 Introduction 25 1. Structural Requirements 27 2. Anti-Discrimination 41 3. Education 55 4. Employment 67 5. Health Care 79 5. Housing 91 Bibliography 105 Annex I 111 Annex II 115 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7 Despite the often alarmist attention given to the Roma, Sinti and Caminanti (RSC, henceforth “Roma”) pop- italy ulation, in Italy the numbers about them are scant. Estimates provided by the European Commission in- dicate the number of 110–170,000 individuals, which represents 0.25% of the total population. Estimates from the National Roma Integration Strategy (NRIS) point out that around 40% are less than 14 years old and only 0.3% are over 60. Overall official data on their diffusion in the Italian regions do not exist, never- theless recent information allows us to draw out some data. The following box presents 11 out of 20 Italian regions with more than 2,000 Roma each. Region Roma (a.v.) Regional population % Abruzzo 6,000 1,312,507 0.45 Calabria 9,000–13,000 1,958,238 0.56 Campania 9,500 5,769,750 0.16 Emilia Romagna 4,000 4,377,487 0.09 Lazio 17,000 5,557,276 0.30 Lombardia 13,000 9,794,525 0.13 Piemonte 6,000–6,500 4,374,052 0.14 Puglia 2,000* 4,050,803 0.04 Sicilia 2,700 4,999,932 0.05 Toscana 3,600 3,692,828 0.09 Veneto 5,600 4,881,756 0.11 * Only non-Italian Roma As for the housing situation, Opera Nomadi evaluates that 60–80% of RSC citizens are living in houses and it is widely acknowledged that around 40,000 of them live in “nomad camps”, most of which are concen- trated in the outskirts of large cities. The figures concerning Roma living in formal, tolerated and informal camps are continuously shifting, due to the different policies carried out by the municipalities and the still ongoing evictions. Roma in Italy have complex characteristics with regard to place of origin, historic period of arrival, level of integration, legal status, cultural, ethnic and linguistic characteristics. The available data are scarce and dif- ficult to read or interpret. The information is fragmented, sometimes estimated and mainly of local scope. The lack of knowledge and the interpretations based on their alleged nomadism (estimated at around 3%, who carry out seasonal work), accompanied by discrimination, prejudice against gypsies, indifference or clear political will, have, since the 80s, influenced measures that led to the “policies of the Roma camps”. In more recent times, in the name of social alarm and problems of public order and safety, in May 2008 the Government declared a “state of emergency in relation to nomad settlements” in the regions of Campania, Lazio and Lombardy, to which, in 2009, Piedmont and Veneto were added. The “Nomad Emergency” thus erased the policies of inclusion which had previously been launched and the “equipped villages” were considered to be the solution for Roma. After various legal proceedings, which were followed by appeals, in April 2013 the Supreme Court of Cassation ended the state of emergency, regarding it as unlawful. Nev- ertheless, the policies of the construction of camps and of evictions are still carried out, to the detriment of the communities and families. In this framework, on 24 February 2012 the Italian Government approved the “National Strategy for the Inclusion of Roma, Sinti and Caminanti” (NRIS) prepared by UNAR (Office for the promotion of equal treat- ment and the removal of discrimination based on race and ethnic origin at the Department for Equal Op- DECADE OF ROMA portunities of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers). The Strategy was evaluated positively by different INCLUSION 2005-2015 key actors (with some provisions by Romani representatives) because it marks an important break with the past for two reasons. The first regards the choice to overcome the emergency perspective, the camp solution and the welfarist approach, the adoption of an approach based on rights, the abandonment of the concept of nomadism and a greater and more effective use of European funding opportunities. The 8 second reason regards the fact that for the first time an unambiguous national strategic framework is being adopted for the “integration” of Roma, which aims to provide unity of purpose to the planning of policies in Italy, in accordance with the competences of local governments. Through an integrated approach, founded on the principles of planning and of the involvement of all interested parties, four systemic actions were defined to: increase institutional capacity building as well as that of civil society for the integration of Roma; promote a permanent integrated system of networks and regional centres against discrimination; organise an integrated strategy of information, communication and mediation aimed at breaking down stereotypes and prejudices; develop and trial a model of partici- pation of the Roma community in local and national decision-making processes. These systemic actions are aimed at supporting specific activities within the four sectoral axes of intervention in the fields of edu- cation, employment, health and housing. The organisational structure of NRIS includes: an Inter-ministerial control room, a body of coordination and political steering, assisted in the coordination and efficiency by the National Focal Point (NFP); a Control room with Regions and Local Authorities, composed of three organisations of local authorities: the National Conference of the Regions, ANCI (National Association of Italian Municipalities) and UPI (Union of Italian Provinces); the Roma, Sinti, Caminanti (RSC) Communities Forum, with interface functions, reports and plans with national Tables and with the political control room, which has not yet been established; national thematic Tables on the four priority axes coordinated by ref- erential Ministries; ad hoc working groups (on the legal status of Roma, the statistical gap and on European funds); Regional/local Tables, with the participation of the regional offices concerned, peripheral adminis- trations of the state, of the Provinces and Municipalities, together with civil society.