AND
CULTURAL RIGHTS
Geneva, 8-26 November 2004
Item 6 of the provisional agenda
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS
SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES IN ACCORDANCE WITH ARTICLE 16 OF THE INTERNATIONAL
COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
REPLIES BY THE GOVERNMENT OF ITALY To the list of issues (E/C.12/Q/ITA/2) to be taken
up in connection with the consideration of the FOURTH periodic report of ITALY
concerning the rights referred to in articles 1-15 of the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (E/C.12/4/Add. 13)
HR/CESCR/NONE/2004/3
IMPLEMENTATION
OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
List of
issues (to be presented by 05.1.2004)
I.
GENERAL
FRAMEWORK WITHIN WHICH THE COVENANT IS IMPLEMENTED
1.
Please provide information on whether the party' s various national plans on
human rights are consistent with the recommendations of the Vienna Declaration
and Programme of Action of 1993. Do the various national plans existing in the
State party aim to protect and promote economic, social and cultural rights in
an integrated and coherent manner?
With
reference to the Vienna Conference of June 14-15 of 1993, and to the
engagements taken with the relative Declaration and Program of Action, Italy
gives the following information, with particular regard to the following
points:
POINT
11
In
Italy, the following structures and organisms are operating:
NATIONAL
COMMITTEE FOR BIOETHICS
The
institution of the National Committee for bioethics followed Resolution
n.6-00038, approved on July 5th, 1998 by the Law Chamber at the end of a debate
on "the problems of life", with which the Government had promoted a
discussion, also at international level, on biomedical research and genetic
engineering, in the perspective of the respect of human freedom and dignity.
The discussion ended up with the proposal of the establishment of an Òad hocÓ Committee, with the following
tasks:
-
to
elaborate a summarizing description of programs, aims and results of research
and experimentation in the field of sciences of life and human health;
-
to
show solutions regarding the control mechanisms aimed to ensure both human
security and environment safety in the production of biological material, and
the protection from any possible risks of patients under genetic therapy or
treated with products of the genetic engineering;
-
to
promote the editing of behaviour codes for all those operators of different
sectors who have to provide public opinion with correct information..
The Committee is an organ of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and has advise functions towards the Government, the Parliament and other institutions. It is also connected with analogous organisms of other countries, in particular EU and CoE member States of. The Committee will also provide information to associations, research centres, local ethical committees, scholars and other citizens.
The
National Committee for Bio-security and Bio-technologies (CNBB), originally
named "Scientific Committee for the Risks deriving from the Use of
Biological Agents", was established within the Presidency of the Council
of Ministers in 1992 by art. 40 of Law no. 14 of February 19th, 1992. That law
implemented European Directive 90/220/CEE on the voluntary emission in the environment of microorganisms
genetically modified, and European Directive 90/219/CEE on the limited use of
such microorganisms.
The
Committee has also the institutional task of co-ordinating and integrating
programs, initiatives and activities of Ministries and other public or private
institutions working in the sector of biotechnology, in order to guarantee the
unity and the coherence of different actions.
The co-ordination function, in particular, qualifies the Committee for interacting with all public and private institutions that are interested in biotechnology. The involvement of the Committee is prior to the decisions of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. In addition, Ministries and public institutions can directly resort to the Committee, both for the procedures that result in a collegiate act and for those of their own competence.
In the
framework of EU policy against racism and xenophobia, the Government has always
kept anti-Semitism under careful observation, carrying out initiatives to fight
the phenomenon through:
-
the
constitution of an Office for the promotion of equality of treatment and
removal of discrimination founded on race or ethnic origin, according to art.
29 of Law n. 39, March 1st, 2002. This Office is established within the
Presidency of the Council of Ministers Department for Equal Opportunities -DPCM 11 DIC 2003.
The Office should guarantee, impartially and
with full autonomy of judgement, equality of treatment and ensure the
effectiveness of instruments adopted to fight discrimination. Moreover, the
Office should contribute to remove discriminations founded on race and ethnic
origin, also analysing the different impact they have on men and women and
their relationship with other forms of racism founded on cultural and religious
grounds.
-
The
establishment, within the Ministry of Home Affairs, of the Committee against
Discrimination and anti-Semitism, DM 30 GEN 2004.
The Committee has also the task to constantly
monitor the possible regression towards forms of intolerance, racism,
xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and to identify sanctions and educational
instruments to effectively oppose every behaviour inspired by religious or
racial hatred;
-
The
establishment of the Committee for the Recovery of the Bibliographic Property
of the Roman Jewish community, plundered in 1943, following the work of the
Committee on Events related to the Acquisition of the Goods of Hebrew Italian
citizens by public and private organisms-DPCM 26 NOV 2002.
The Committee has the task to promote a careful
research to clarify the events relating to the bibliographic property of the
Roman Jewish community. This property, which is considered by Italian
Government as an element of high cultural interest, had been dispersed
following the forays committed in the last months of 1943. In the event of the
finding of, at least, part of this property, the Committee has also the task to
suggest measures aimed at its recovery. In this field, there is also a very
active Inter-Ministerial Committee for the recovery of the art works subtracted
in the war period 1940-1945.
Italy has, since March, the honour to chair the International Task Force on the Shoah, an international organization, made up by 16 countries, that aims at keeping alive the collective memory of the extermination of millions of Jewish, through teaching, teachers' training and promotion of researches and studies. This Task Force works to transmit to new generations the memory of atrocities committed by Nazis, in order to prevent such annihilation of the human being, resulting from totalitarism, to happen again. During the celebration of the "Day of Memory", on January 27th, 2004, the Chief of Italian Government took the responsibility to do his best to favour dialogue, respect and acceptance among different cultures and religions.
Therefore, the Italian Government strongly supported, during the 2003 European Council that concluded the semester of Italian chairmanship, the EU engagement against any extremism, intolerance and xenophobia. Condemning all actions that prejudice pacific and democratic cohabitation, Italian Government showed its deep worry for the increase in episodes of anti-Semite intolerance, both against religious places and individuals.
-
to
study, research and make proposals on the implementation of Constitution
principles related to freedom of belief.
-
to
consider issues related to the preparation of agreements with different
religions, also giving a preliminary opinion on agreement drafts;
-
to
elaborate guidelines concerning the drawing-up of the such agreements;
-
to
formulate advises, at the request of the President of the Council of Ministers,
on the issue of the relationship between State and religions, both in Italy and
European Union;
-
Signalling
difficulties in the implementation of laws, including those deriving from
international agreements signed by Italy.
The
Parliament is actually working on the following human rights bills:
C.4230 The introduction of "human rights education" teaching in high schools.
S.48 The establishment of an independent
Committee for protection and promotion of human rights.
C.411 Establishment of a national
Ombudsman for people deprived of personal freedom.
POINT
21
Concerning the rights of the child, the Low Chamber has approved last year important guidelines on child labour, advising the Government to establish the Ombusdman for Adolescence and Childhood, in order to supervise, co-ordinate and support actions in this field. The Parliament has also approved laws concerning family abuse (Law n.304) and financial support to families in need with at least three minors (Law n.133). Moreover, with the approval of Law 77/2003, the Parliament has ratified the European Convention on Rights of the Child.
On February 26, the experimental management of
a free national help line "SOS childhood" has been entrusted to the
NGO "S.O.S Telefono AzzurroÓ. Moreover, at the end of the year, an
agreement has been reached with Internet providers on a self-regulation code
"Internet and minorsÓ. While the Parliament has kept on discussing on the
possible establishment of a national Ombudsman for childhood, many local and
regional councils decided to establish such institution at local level.
Italian Presidency has also actively promoted the approval of the EU Guidelines on Children Participation to Armed Conflicts; these guidelines have then been discussed in occasion of the EU Forum on Human Rights, organised in Rome at the end of 2003, on the topic ÒThe Protection of Children according to International Law. In this occasion, Italian Government has reiterated its commitment to work with all competent international organizations and NGOs to fight trafficking in minors and children sexual abuse.
POINT 23
The
Low Chamber First Committee on Constitutional Affairs is currently discussing the
Government bill (A.CG 5381) modifying the proceeding concerning the recognition
of refugee status, in order to properly implement art.10 of Italian
Constitution.
Other
bills are currently under discussion in the Parliament:
S.
509 Norms
regarding humanitarian protection and asylum right.
C.
1238 Rules
in matter of humanitarian protection and asylum right.
C. 1464 Recognition of foreign citizensÕ right to vote.
2.
Please indicate if the State party envisages establishing to national human
rights institution in conformity with the Principles relating to the status of
national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (Paris
Principles, General Assembly Resolution 48/134, annex).
National
organisms operating in the sector of the protection of fundamental rights
In Italy there is still no independent human rights organism at the national level, as requested by the UN resolution 48/134 of December 20th, 1993(A/RES/48/134). However, in order to comply with such resolution, the Senate is going to discuss very soon a bill (S.2666) aiming at the establishment of national committee to guarantee the promotion and the protection of human rights.
The only national organism in this field is the Inter-ministerial
Committee on Human Rights (CIDU), established within the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs (MFA) with MFA
Decree Affairs N. 519, on February 15th, 197. MFA Decree subsequently changed
its composition on February 16th, 1998 and on July 2nd, 2003.
Representatives of the following institutions
are Members of the Committee: Presidency of Council of Ministers, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of
Education, University and Research, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defence,
Ministry of Employment and Social Policies, Ministry for Equal Opportunities,
General Command of ÒCarabinieriÓ, National Council on Economics and Labour (CNEL), National
Statistics Institute, Committee for Equal Opportunities, UNESCO Italian
Committee, Italian Society for the International Organization (SIOI), UNICEF
Italian Committee.
The Committee also includes three distinguished
personalities in the field of human rights, named by the Minister of Foreign
Affairs for a three years period.
The Committee has the following tasks:
a) to realize a systematic review of all laws, regulations,
administrative ad other acts taken by domestic legislative bodies, with
particular attention to Government action, in order to carry out the
engagements contained in all those human rights international conventions
adopted by international organizations to which Italy is a member State;
b) to promote the adoption of all those provisions that are necessary to
assure the full fulfilment of international obligations assumed by Italy,
including those obligations that will follow, in the future, the ratification
of Conventions already signed by Italy;
c) to supervise the observance of international conventions on national
territory and the preparation of reports, periodical or not, that Italy is
requested to present to the competent international organizations
d) to collaborate in the organization, in Italy, of activities related
to international human rights initiatives, such as conferences, seminars and
celebrations of Òinternational daysÓ, also maintaining contacts with civil society groups that are active in
this field.
The Committee, on behalf of Italian Government, prepares and presents to the UN the reports on the implementation of international human rights conventions signed by Italy (Conventions on: Racial Discrimination, Discrimination against Women, Tortures and other Inhuman and Degrading Treatments, Rights of the Child; Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights). It furthermore supervises the national implementation of the follow-up to Durban Conference and UNGASS.
Law n.80, approved on March 19th, 1999, regulates the funding of the
Committee and prescribes the presentation to the Parliament of an annual report
on the Committee human rights activities.
Though
not including NGOs representatives (its principal task being the presentation
of State Reports, a task of strict governmental nature), the Committee has
gradually increased its contacts with civil society, involving NGO representatives
in the collection of the information necessary to write the above-mentioned
reports and organizing consultations and meetings when the contribution of
civil society is deemed necessary (for example on: the situation of Roma
people, the role of Civic Defenders, racism and discrimination, rights of the
child, women's rights, trafficking in human beings). In occasion of the main
international human rights events (as the UN Commission on Human Rights, the
UNGA Third Committee and Durban and UNGASS Conferences), the Committee
organizes meetings with main NGOs to explain them the essential elements of the
Italian position. Informal contacts with NGOs and other civil society
representatives (universities, movements, associationsÉ) are also kept in order to discuss
specific issues or general themes, such as the abolition of capital punishment
and the struggle against torture, on which Italy is especially engaged in
international fora.
Moreover, there are other human rights organisms:
Established in 1990 within the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Committee has the task to supervise the use of legislative and administrative instruments to define the criteria to be used in medical and biological practice, in order to protect human rights and avoid abuses. Furthermore, the Committee has the task to guarantee that public opinion receive correct information on different topics such as therapeutic treatments and their consequences, diagnostic techniques and the progress of biomedical sciences.
The Committee has been established in 1984, by a Governmental Decree,
under the name of ÒNational Committee for Equality and Equal Opportunities between Men and
WomenÓ. Law 164/90
has then defined its competencies, expertise, composition, duration and liquid
asset. Government Decree n.226, approved on July 31st, 2003, implemented
article 13 of Law n.137, July 6th, 2002, gave Committee the current
denomination and turned it in an advisory organ, charged with advising and
supporting the Minister for Equal Opportunities in the elaboration and
implementation of equal opportunity policies.
Its tasks are the following:
a)
Making proposals on the elaboration of normative changes necessary to
remove any form of direct and indirect discrimination towards women and to
conform the legal system to equal opportunity principles. This task also
includes providing necessary information and technical and statistical
documentation.
b)
Collecting, analysing and elaborating data to check the implementation
of equal opportunity policies in political, economic and social life, and
proposing initiatives whenever necessary.
c)
Drafting an annual report on the implementation of equal opportunities
policies.
d)
Providing technical and scientific advise on specific issues, at the
request of the Minister or the Department for Equal Opportunities;
e)
Researching on equal opportunity issues.
The Committee was instituted by an inter-ministerial decree in 1950 and is made up by representatives of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, other Ministries and public and private institutions, including experts of cultural sector. The Committee also promotes, at national level, UNESCO activities, including the dissemination and promotion of human rights.
The
National Observatory for childhood and adolescence, as well as the
Parliamentary Committee for Childhood, has been established by Law n.451/97,
and then regulated by DPR n.369 of October 5th, 1998. The Observatory is
chaired by the Minister of Employment and Social Policies, and has to promote
co-ordination among central, regional and local authorities, associations,
professional classes and NGOs working on this subject.
The Observatory promotes and guides
policies towards children and adolescent; moreover, with the help of the
National Centre for Documentation and Analysis for Childhood and Adolescence,
it:
a) Prepares every two years the National Plan of action for the protection of children rights and development, also looking for the best way to fund such actions.
b)
Prepares
every two years the Report on the situation of children and adolescents in
Italy and on the implementation of their rights.
c)
Contributes
to prepare the Government Report to the UN on the implementation of the
International Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989.
The
National Observatory for the Childhood and the Adolescence is made up by
representatives of several Ministries, institutions and NGOs and makes part of
European Network of National Observatories on Childhood.
The Inter-ministerial Committee for the Co-ordination of Fight against Paedophilia (CICLOPE) has been established to co-ordinate all actions aimed at protecting minors from exploitation and sexual abuse. This co-ordination task has been at first given to Presidency of the Council of Ministers by art. 17 of Law n 269/98, and then to the Minister for the Equal Opportunities by DPCM approved on February 14th, 2002. The CICLOPE includes representatives of 11 Ministries (Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, Justice, Labour and Social Policies, Health and, Education, University and Research, Communications, Innovation and Technologies, Relationships with the Parliament, Community Policies and Productive Activities), working under the co-ordination of the Ministry for Equal Opportunities, and collaborates with international organizations and NGOs working in the same field. The final aim is to set up a common strategy for all initiatives aimed at better knowing and preventing paedophilia, protecting minors, helping victims of child abuses and punishing criminals.
Established
by Decree of January 30th, 2004, the Committee has the task to constantly
monitor the dangers of regression towards forms of intolerance, racism, xenophobia
and anti-Semitism, and to identify educational instruments and sanctions to
oppose all behaviour inspired by religious or racial hatred.
3.
Please indicate to what extent the Covenant is reflected in the domestic legal
order and whether the so-called "indicative value" of the Covenant
allows it to be invoked before a court and is sufficient to render it
justiciable. Please cite examples of relevant law cases.
Concerning both the lack of judicial decisions
that expressly refer to the Covenant and the value of the Covenant itself in
Italian proceedings, there is nothing to add to what written in the last State
Report of June 2002. It is however very important to underline how many laws,
including recent ones, have been inspired by Covenant principles and constitute
its implementation into the domestic system, as already pointed out in reply to
other questions shown above.
4.
Please indicate the position of State party on the draft optional protocol to
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The
issue of the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights, that is
the possibility of establishing a mechanism at international level to guarantee
such rights, raises problems of remarkable complexity, given the fact that State
sovereignty is a fundamental principle of international relations.
In
particular, justiciability of ESC rights is confronted with two main obstacles:
the limited availability of resources, especially in the developing countries,
to guarantee some of such rights, and the limits put by State sovereignty, that
forbids interference in States internal affairs. In other terms, the
recognition of the justiciability of those rights at international level would
mean the interference in sectors covered by State sovereignty, and it is not
very realistic, at least in a short-term perspective and for some of those
rights.
However,
it is important to recall that the general duty of non-discrimination in the
implementation of all rights is already binding on all States. In this respect,
it is to presume that developed countries will be object of particular
attention, especially concerning the treatment of immigrant workers.
5.
Please indicate whether non-governmental organizations were consulted in the
preparation of the Report.
During
the editing of the Report, some contacts with a few qualified ONG were started.
6.
Please provide information on the implementation of the recommendations
contained in the CommitteeÕs concluding observations on the third periodic report been of the
party.
Italy
has considered with greatest attention all recommendations contained in the
conclusive observations of the Committee to the third Report on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights. Concerning the appeal of the Committee in favour of
an increased international cooperation, please consider the answer given to
question n.7 of the present questionnaire. As regard to regard to disabled
people, please refer to the answer given to question n. 8. Controls and
inspections against illegal labour market are treated in the answer to question
n.12. The most recent measures to protect minors from sexual exploitation and
trafficking are considered in answer n. 1. Recent measures against
discrimination and violence against the women, are contained in answers n.10
and 12. The health and the vulnerable groups issues are treated in answer 29.
Education and school abandonment are considered in answers n. 30, 32 and 34.
Please carefully consider the whole questionnaire in considering any theme.
II.
ISSUES
RELATING TO THE GENERAL PROVISIONS OF THE COVENANT (art). (1-5)
International cooperation (art). 2, para.. 1)
7.
Please describe the measures adopted by the party in the area of international
assistance and cooperation. Please also indicate whether the State party
intends to increase its budget allocation for official development assistance
in order to reach the United Nations target.
The
trend of the activities of the Development Cooperation General Directorate
(Dgcs) established at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its Dgcs, is responsible for the promotion
and coordination of the Italian development cooperation initiatives. The
Ministry manages the 33% of the resources allocated by Italy to the Public Aid
for Development, the so called APS (Aiuto Pubblico allo Sviluppo), which is
provided as donations, aid credits and food aids. The remaining two thirds are
constituted by transfers to the European Union, by the reconstitutions of the
capital of banks, by development funds managed by the Ministry for Economic
Affairs and by the reorganization and the cancellation of the debts of
Developing Countries.
Minor
amounts of resources are managed by other Ministries, such as the Ministry for
Environment, the Ministry for Home Affairs, the Ministry of Health and by local
authorities, namely Regions,
Provinces and Municipalities.
The
Dgcs is also involved in the granting of resources to the Italian enterprises
that participate with venture capital to the establishment of enterprises in
Developing Countries, pursuant to art.7 of Law no. 49/1987. These resources do
not constitute APS.
A few
days before the Monterrey Conference, Italy committed to achieving the target
of devoting the 0,7% of its GDP to APS. In fact, during the European Council
which took place in Barcelona in March 2002, Italy pledged, within the EU
framework, to devote the 0,33% of GDP to APS, by 2006.
Thus,
Dpef 2003-2006 has foreseen the attainment of the cited goal, in compliance
with the Economic Pact of Stability and Growth, through two ways:
1.
By
gradual increases in the resources allocated for all the aforementioned
components of APS;
2.
By
cutting off the bilateral debts (which were mainly aid credits and commercial
credits provided by Italy on the basis of SACE) of Developing Countries,
pursuant to Law no. 209/2000.
To
reach the target of the 0,33%, the Dpef has outlined, on the basis of a
step-by-step approach, a calendar for a gradual adjustment of the expenses
capacity of the Italian cooperation. The following calendar will be reviewed
every year, up to 2006, in accordance with the economic trends:
á 2003 0,19% -0,20%
á 2004 0,23% -0,24%
á 2005 0,27% -0,28%
á 2006 0,33%
The Dgcs avails itself of three indicators
in order to calculate the amount of APS for every single financial year:
1.
The
initiatives decided by the Board of Dgcs or by the Chief of the Directorate.
The indicator is meant to enlist all the projects that have been elaborated but
still need to be implemented first and foremost by financial-budgetary
engagements;
2.
The
financial-budgetary engagements taken up in the year under review: this is the
indicator signalling the starting point of the cooperation activities;
3.
The
payments made during the year: this is the indicator used at the international
level to measure the percentage of GDP devoted to APS in OCSE countries, so as
to live up to the United NationsÕ target to transfer, on an annual basis, the
0,7% of the GDP to Developing Countries.
The trend of the APS relating to the Italian
GDP over the last three years is as follows:
á 2000 0,13%
á 2001 0,15%
á
2002 0,20%
The trend mentioned below is mainly due to three factors:
1.
The
managerial flexibility (and thus the greater effectiveness of the measures
adopted by Dgcs) pursuant to art. 8 of Law no. 266/1999;
2.
The
steadfast increase of the budgetary-financial expense engagements which Dgcs
has taken over, on the basis of the available resources, at the budgetary
level;
3.
The
enforcement of Law no. 209/2000 On the Cancellation of the Debt of the Least
Developed and Indebted Countries.
As regards the trend of the expense flows
which are directly managed by Dgcs, the figures concerning the three-year
period 2000-2002 are mentioned below:
|
Budgetary-financial expenses from the amount of resources to be allocated (fees and surplus) |
|
74, 1 |
86,1% |
92,2% |
|
Payments |
|
81% |
73% |
92% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The concluding observations of the Monterrey
Conference (the so-called "Monterrey Consensus") have foreseen that
donor countries will be committed to improving the quality and the
effectiveness of the aid. During the year 2002, the Italian cooperation lived
up to the concluding observations along three guidelines:
á At national level, the Italian
cooperation issued a text on how to better monitor and evaluate the development
cooperation initiatives;
á At European level, Italy has taken
into account the "Country Strategy Papers" and the "Regional
Strategy Papers" of the European Union, along with the "Poverty
Reduction Strategies" of Developing Countries to better develop its
cooperation projects. With specific regard to Òcountry bilateral projectsÓ, it is worth mentioning the Italian
cooperation system is going through a transitional stage. In fact, Italy is
currently evaluating how to be better coordinated and coherent and overall how
to ensure an effective consistency of its projecting system with other donorsÕ projects. Within this context, we
have taken part in the European pilot project of Policies Coordination and
Procedural Harmonization, which is currently implemented in Morocco,
Mozambique, Vietnam and Nicaragua;
á At international level, Italy was a
member of the OCSE Development Aid Committee which issued a text, entitled
"Harmonising Donor Practices for Effective Aid Delivery" and also
organized, jointly with the Ministry of the Treasure, OCSE and the World Bank,
a "high-level Forum on the Harmonization". This Forum convened in Rome at the
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in February 2003. The Forum concluded by
adopting The Rome Declaration on the Harmonization, which set up pledges and
follow-up activities.
From 1997 to 2002, the trend of the
resources allocated to APS, fixed by the yearly Budget Law and supplemented
with the financial resources arranged to realize the London Convention on Food
Aids, was the following (the values are express in millions of euro):
|
Budgeting
to APS |
|
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Donations |
|
268 |
308 |
362 |
554 |
827 |
794 |
|
Aid
Credits |
|
27 |
21 |
10 |
0 |
26 |
0 |
|
Food
Aid |
|
0 |
36 |
36 |
36 |
36 |
36 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
|
|
295 |
365 |
408 |
590 |
889 |
830 |
As to financial year 2002, 794,4 millions of
euro have been allocated to Dgcs (established at the Italian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs), pursuant to: Law no. 49/1987; Art. 8 of Law no. 266/1999; Law
no. 58/2001 (on humanitarian demining); Law 84/2001 (on measures in the
Balkans); and additional single laws which grant annual compulsory
contributions to a certain number of international and national bodies, such as
the National Agronomic Institute for Overseas Activities, i.e. Ipalmo, that is
involved in development cooperation activities.
In the year 2002, no funding stemming from
Laws no. 300/1998 and no.186/1999 was attributed to Dgcs. Therefore, 794,4
millions of euro come from:
|
Allocations in 2002 |
|
|
|
|
Millions of euro |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2002 Budget Law |
|
|
|
|
453,5 |
|
Changes over
the year |
|
|
|
|
- 4,5 |
|
Transfer from ad hoc Funds (Law no. 26671999) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Budget Law Ð compulsory contributions |
|
|
|
|
206,6 |
|
Law On Initiatives in the Balkans Law no. 84/2001 |
|
|
|
|
14,7 |
|
Law On Humanitarina Demining Law no.58/2001 |
|
|
|
|
9,8 |
|
Budget Law Ð running costs |
|
|
|
|
6,8 |
|
Residuals from resources allocated in 2001 |
|
|
|
|
91,9 |
The allocation of 794,4 millions of euro is
allotted as follows:
|
Allocation
in the year 2002 |
|
|
|
|
Millions of
euros |
|
Running costs
(4,5%) |
|
|
|
|
35,9 |
|
Development
Cooperation Initiatives (95,5%) |
|
|
|
|
758,5 |
Initiatives in the Development
Cooperation field
Deliberations by the Dgcs Board and
the Chief of the Dgcs
In 2002, the Board approved development
cooperation initiatives amounting to nearly 906,4 millions of euro, so divided:
|
Measures |
|
|
|
|
Millions of euro |
|
Donations |
|
|
|
|
641,4 |
|
Aid Credits |
|
|
|
|
258,4 |
|
Mixed Enterprises |
|
|
|
|
6,7 |
As regards the Donations, for a few typologies
the approved funding was the
following:
|
Types |
|
|
|
|
Millions of euro |
|
Projects launched by NGOs |
|
|
|
|
73,3 |
|
Training projects run in Italy |
|
|
|
|
14,3 |
Gender policies
The relevant strategy of the Dgcs is based
upon the guidelines on womenÕs empowerment and the promotion of a gender
perspective in APS which are provided by Italy. The guidelines, which were
adopted in 1998, set up priorities, methods and areas in which APS will be
allocated so as to effectively implement gender policies. At this stage,
priorities are:
1.
The introduction of gender-related
issues in the political dialogue and, above all, the promotion of the effective
participation of women in the decision-making processes at every level, with
particular regard to the role of women in the peace-building processes;
2.
The
insertion of a gender perspective in projects aimed at fighting against
poverty, with specific regard to equal access to resources in the agriculture
and in the micro-enterprise, through the promotion of professional training and
the female entrepreneurship, as well as the equal access to credit.
3.
The
reproductive health, the fight against trafficking in human beings, in
particular in women and girls, and the fight against the plague of the violence
against women and children.
Initiatives at the Regional level
Mediterranean Africa and Middle East
The strategic key-note has been the
promotion of initiatives for womenÕs empowerment through:
á
The
support to womenÕs organizations, governmental ones and not, with the aim of introducing
a gender perspective in the strategies and projects of each single country;
á
The
establishment of networks of womenÕs associations and institutions based in the
two sides of the Mediterranean in order to exchange views and to share
information, particularly on the enjoyment of human rights and reproductive
rights, in accordance with the Directives adopted at the Barcelona
Euro-Mediterranean Conference;
á
The
implementation of projects, which have been carried out by NGOs and
international organizations, for women involved in the agricultural sector, in
the health area and in the small and middle-scale enterprises.
Ad hoc initiatives were realized in Egypt,
in Morocco, in Palestine and in Tunisia by financing projects carried out by
international organizations and NGOs, as was the case with the Palestinian
Center for Women, Victims of Violence (established in Bethlehem), or through
the establishment, within the World Bank framework, of an ad hoc Fund.
The Horn of Africa
The peculiar situation which this area
faces, does not manage to set up a single strategy for the promotion of the
gender dimension. Therefore, single approaches were identified for each
country. In Eritrea, Dgcs carried out and extended projects relating to the
socio-health care system, particularly targeting motherhood-related issues. In
Somalia, Italy is supporting UNIFEMÕs projects for the promotion of
the role of Somali womenÕs NGOs which are involved in the peace process, namely the National
Reconciliation process. In Ethiopia, Italy has been supporting the Office for
Women Affairs by financing, within the framework of the World Bank, an ad hoc
trust fund. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning an ad hoc planning system for
initiatives relating to womenÕs empowerment, to be realized within the
framework of projects devoted to rural areas in Arsi and in Bale.
Eastern Africa
In this area specific projects are currently
under way:
- In Uganda, Italy is committed to
promoting, through WFP, an initiative for women in rural areas;
- In Tanzania, Italy launched, in
September 2002, the second phase of a project, aimed at promoting the female entrepreneurship
by supporting the Ministry for Development, Women and Childhood;
Southern Africa
The strategy for southern Africa is focused
on the fight against poverty, particularly in Angola, in Mozambique and in
South Africa. In Zimbabwe, an initiative for the reinforcement of the female
entrepreneurship is at its final stage. In South Africa, Dgcs committed to
inserting the gender mainstreaming in the project, entitled "Small
Enterprise and Human Development" (Sehd). Its efforts led to an high
percentage of women's participation in the promotional activities of the cited
initiative (the percentage of women participating in this initiative amounted,
in some part of the country to more than the 30%).
Central America
The projects for womenÕs empowerment, which were
launched by UNFPA (and in some cases jointly with Cepal) in Honduras and in El
Salvador, have been extended, up-to date. In Cuba, the pilot project for womenÕs empowerment, which was agreed
by the Cuban Government in 1999 and then carried out by Cuban Authority,
jointly with Dgcs, UNIFEM and UNDP-UNOPS, is still under way.
The Balkans
The strategy in the Balkans focused on the
adoption of measures relating to the "Gender Task Force" established
within the framework of the ÒEconomic Stability PactÓ and was implemented, through ad
hoc initiatives, in Croatia, in Montenegro, in Serbia and in Bosnia.
The mainstreaming of the gender dimension
Fight against poverty and conflict
prevention
In the context of the initiatives aimed at
the reduction of poverty, specific attention has been paid to the role that
women can play and in particular to women affected by and involved in armed
conflict. In this regard a pivotal role has been played by the decentralised
cooperation: it is worth mentioning the initiative which was promoted by the
municipality of Forl“, which elaborated an ad hoc strategy for women in Algeria and in
Albania.
Fight against trafficking in human beings
Initiatives to fight against trafficking in
human beings, particularly in women and children, continue to be carried out,
through a few multi-bilateral projects promoted by IOM and UNICRI, mostly in
the Balkans and in Nigeria.
Reproductive Health and Rights
The strong synergy and the effective
cooperation with UNFPA has favoured the promotion of projects to eradicate FGM
in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Initiatives in the Emergency Area
The Dgcs pays the utmost attention to the
area under reference. In 2002, the Dgcs prepared, in cooperation with UNDP, a
text, entitled "Gender in Emergencies". Specific attention is
currently paid to Afghan women.
The Child-related issues
Several measures targeting children in
Developing Countries and in States in transition have been taken and still
continue to be adopted, in accordance with the strategy outlined by the
Guidelines on child-related issues which were adopted in November 1998. Bearing
in mind that children Òenjoy fundamental rights and play a key-role in promoting democratic
and reconciliation processes, as well as the sustainable development",
Dgcs identified, on the basis of the above Guidelines, priorities and
strategies:
á
Preventing
and fighting the worst forms of the child labour, trafficking in children, the
social exclusion, the spread of a culture of violence;
á
Realizing
an effective juvenile justice system, the right to citizenship, the principle
of non-discrimination.
The Italian participation in the "UNGA
Special Session on the Childhood - UNGASS " (New York, May 8-10, 2002)
gave the opportunity to highlight the effectiveness of the strategies already
adopted and the contents of the aforementioned Guidelines. On that occasion, it
was strengthened ItalyÕs conviction that the fight against poverty, womenÕs empowerment, democracy and
reconciliation process can be achieved through ad hoc measures targeting
children and families, that in most Developing Countries are often
mono-parental (mostly young mothers). Moreover, Governments adopted a Plan of
Action focused on four priority goals/areas. The Plan of Action is thus the
basis of the initiatives that Dgcs is currently launching and will enhance in
the near future:
1.
Improving
life and healthÕs conditions;
2.
Ensuring
adequate standards of education;
3.
Protecting
children from exploitation, violence and abuse;
4.
Fighting
against the spread of Hiv/Aids.
The projects, which have been implemented so
far in Developing Countries with the aim of the protection of childrenÕs rights, were elaborated with a
multi-faceted approach, so as to respond to the broad range of factors which
were and, in some cases, are the root-causes of the violations of human rights
and fundamental freedoms.
Several initiatives have been undertaken
through NGOs with the aim of: improving the socio-health care and educational
sectors (so as to provide aid for children exposed to the risk of social
exclusion); preventing-rehabilitating minor workers and children living in the
street; improving the female condition, particularly of girls in pre-school
age; fighting against the exploitation of children for sexual purposes;
improving lifeÕs conditions of children with disabilities; preventing and promoting,
inter alia, through ad hoc health-care awareness campaigns, in the schools.
As regards the decentralised cooperation,
projects on unaccompanied or abandoned children and on those who are exposed to
the risk of the organized crime, are currently under review and will be soon realized, in partnership
with a few Italian regions (Puglia, Emilia Romagna and Marches) in countries,
such as Bosnia, Croatia and Albania that are candidates to accede to the EU.
Mindful that girls, particularly the poor
ones, between eight and fifteen years of age, either can be victims of sexual abuse in the
household and outside, or may face a precocious motherhood, or be victims of
FGM; or trafficked for sexual exploitation, Italy pays the utmost attention to
the girl child-related issues.
Within the framework of the Economic
Stability Pact for the Balkans, Italy has been financing several projects which
amounted to 9 millions of euro and aimed at: promoting the peace process;
facilitating the democratization process; favouring the access of young people
(above all women) to labour market; and providing psychic and physical recovery
to children, victims of armed conflict. In this context, it is worth mentioning
the initiative of decentralised cooperation, entitled "project for the
protection and the reinsertion of children with physical and psychic handicap,
who have been victims of armed conflict, and promotion of social
entrepreneurship in Bosnia Herzegovina" which was carried out by Dgcs, in
partnership with the regions of Emilia-Romagna and Marches and with the
participation of the municipalities of Bologna and Salsomaggiore, in BIH. Along
this line, another relevant project, entitled "The Italian Participation
in the Rebuilding Process of the Sub-Danube (ex Eastern Slavonia) - Promotion
of the Youthful Entrepreneurship and Development of the Social Services in
Croatia", was carried out by Dgcs, in partnership with the region of
Friuli. Another initiative
amounting to 2,4 millions of dollars has been realizing, through the World
Bank, in Serbia and Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia, Croatia, Bulgaria,
Kossovo and Romania.
In Latin America, several initiatives, such
as the UNICEF projects in the Andean region (Proandes) and in Nicaragua to
fight against poverty and the worst forms of child labour, the ILO/IPEC program
against the worst forms of child labour in Central America and that one of UNDP
for the promotion of a society without violence in El Salvador, were financed
with voluntary contributions. In Ecuador, Italy pledged two millions of euro
for the UNICEF initiative, aimed at protecting and promoting the rights of
children and adolescents exposed to the risk of social exclusion. Furthermore,
Dgcs is currently reviewing a project for the protection and promotion of poor
girls in Egypt, which will aim at creating a birth registration system. Along
this line, it is worth mentioning: the "project in favour of children and
adolescents at risk and in conflict with justice, to be soon realized in
Mozambique, through UNICRI; the "Global Programme against Trafficking in
Human Beings" realized by UNICRI, jointly with Ecpat in Mozambique; the
initiative carried out in Albania on Òvulnerable children and the
reinforcement of the system of international adoptionsÓ.
Lastly, an Italian "Task Force",
made up of experts from the academic world and from NGOs, has been recently
established at the Innocenti Institute/UNICEF (Florence), in order to better
support the European network engaged in the issue of Children and Armed
Conflict (CAAC). A seminar devoted to the study and the identification of
projects aimed at establishing effective birth recording system took place in
July.
8.
Please indicate what measures have been taken to combat social and economic
discrimination against persons with disabilities in the State party.
1.
SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
With
regard to the social integration of persons with disabilities, Italy has achieved
significant results by promoting initiatives in different areas, from the
educational system to the access to labour market, and by undertaking measures
to favour the effective autonomy, independence and social life of the
vulnerable group under reference.
In
addition to economic and social measures foreseen by law provisions, a
meaningful work is made by local Authorities and civil society that play a
fundamental role in the rehabilitation process of persons with disabilities.
Measures,
such as Law no. 13/89 and D.P.R. no. 503/96 are remarkable because of their
aims. They were adopted to eliminate architectural barriers, respectively in
the household and in public buildings, spaces and services with the specific
aim of improving the living conditions of persons with disabilities. In this
regard, significant are the results achieved in the area of public
transportations, such as trains, planes and ships. Specific measures were
adopted in order to favour the accessibility to, the effective use of and the
assistance on passenger transportations.
To
make easier the access to private means of transportation, fiscal facilities
and ad hoc contributions were foreseen and/or granted, respectively for the
purchase of modified cars, as well as for the factors who had modified the
production of cars to that end.
To
promote the tourism of persons with disabilities, public Authorities have
started up, over the last years, several initiatives both at the national and
local levels, with the aim of raising awareness on the possibilities of
"tourism for everybody". In this regard, an extended check up on
infrastructures, information centres, texts and ad hoc training courses for
social services providers have been carried out. In particular, extensive media
campaigns on the possibility and chance of vacations for persons with
disabilities were organized. Moreover, it is worth mentioning the broad
normative system which has been provided by local authorities as well as the
wide range of social services provided at the local level.
At this
stage, it is ItalyÕs conviction that the first step towards the effective integration
process starts up in the schools which are the suitable place where to put into
effect state and regional policies for persons with disabilities.
In Italy,
persons with disabilities, with any disabilities, can enrol in the schools and
in the universities. The integration process of
pupils and students with disabilities in the normal schools began in 70Õs.
The new scheme overcome the system of differential classes and special
institutes for persons with disabilities and so far is a well-established
reality, as laid down in an articulated and wide state and regional legislation
system. On the basis of the positive results and systematic realization of
projects and experimentations at every level, the integration process is being
improved more and more through constantly disbursement of resources and support
by an effective administrative, organizational and didactical structure. The
right to education at the university level is ensured by ad hoc tutorship and
economic facilities, as provided for by Law no.17/99.
Since
the entry into force of the first, ad hoc Law (Law no.517/77) on the compulsory
enrolment of persons with disabilities in the ÒnormalÓ
schools, the integration process in the schools has been enhanced and extended
at every level of the educational system, from kindergartens to high schools.
Nowadays, the school system accepts the almost totality of persons with
disabilities and has arranged adequate structures, capacities and technical
resources so as to manage, when necessary, the organization of specific
courses.
The
integration process in the schools aims at developing learning and
communication skills of the handicapped person as well as his/her social life.
As to pupils who are unable to attend school for health reasons, at least for
thirty days, education is ensured by ad hoc educational courses in the
hospital.
With
specific regard to children with disabilities, education is ensured by a
synergic and coordinated action of the schools and the local authorities
(regions, provinces, municipalities, local health-care providers and civil society),
that, according to their capacities, provide them with the necessary support.
Within
this framework, the strategies implemented so far or currently under way
envisage specific procedures, which involve all the relevant stakeholders,
particularly the family, that must be informed and involved in any possible
way. The family, on its own, takes part, along with teachers and the other
stakeholders, in the projecting stage of ad hoc educational courses.
At
present, the integration process of children with disabilities in the schools
is a basic component of the educational system, as reiterated and extensively
reinforced by Law no. 53/2003. So far, the integration process has been
facilitated by all relevant stakeholders and enhanced through training courses
for specialised personnel, refreshing courses for teachers, ad hoc studies and
surveys, carried out at the national and local levels.
2.
ECONOMIC AND FISCAL FACILITIES
In Italy, on the basis of an
articulate state provisions, the disabled citizens are entitled to receive some
continuative economic facilities.
Such
facilities are supplied on the basis of the age, of the invalidity degree,
verified from competent territorial medical committees, and on the basis of the
existence of other conditions, which depend on the income or the possibility of
working.
With
reference to the current regional provisions, families with disabled people can
obtain economic facilities, in relation to their situation of poverty. At the
regional level, besides, specific dispositions provide contributions for
domiciliary services managed by the same relatives.
Economic assistance for disabled
with multi-disablements.
According to the Law 429/91, the
pensions of different categories, which belong to the subjects with multi-disablements,
can be added, without exceeding the foreseen income limits.
civil
invalids: inability pension
The
inability pension was instituted by the article 12 of the Law March 30th, 1971,
no. 118. This pension is assigned to the civil invalids. A total inability to
the work and a situation of poverty are required in order to receive this
pension. For this second condition, some limits of personal income, which must
not be exceeded by the holder of the inability pension, are annually fixed.
civil
invalids: monthly cheque of assistance
The monthly
cheque of assistance was instituted by the article 13 of the Law March 30th,
1971, no. 118. That article specified that the monthly cheque of assistance is
granted to the civil invalids with a verified reduction of the working capacity
of two third (67%).
Subsequently
the governmental Decree November 23rd, 1988, no. 509 (art. 9) has raised the
percent of minimum invalidity to 74%. However the raising is started from entry in
force of the per cent tables of invalidity (Ministerial Decree February 5th, 1992), and therefore only
from 1992.
civil
invalids: monthly frequency indemnity
The
indemnity of frequency was instituted by the law October 11th, 1990, no. 289
and it is assigned to the disabled minors with persistent difficulties Òin developing of the functions of
their age" (L.289/90) and to the minors with auditory loss higher than 60
decibels in the best ear.
civil
invalids: accompanying indemnity
The
accompanying indemnity was instituted by the Law February 11th, 1980, no. 18.
This provision is in favour of the civil invalids totally unable, because of
physical or psychic handicaps.
Absolute
blindness: pension
The pension
was instituted by the article 8 of the Law February 10th, 1962, no. 6. It is
assigned to the absolute blind adults who are in state of economic need. For
this condition, some limits of personal income, which must not be exceeded by
the holder of the pension, are annually fixed.
The
provision had been extended to the minors by the article 14 septies of the Law
February 29th, 1980, no.33. Subsequently, the article 5 of the Law November
21st, 1988, no. 508 has specified that the blind absolute minor civilians are
entitled to receive not the pension but the accompanying indemnity.
Partial
blindness: pension
The
pension was instituted by the article 8 of the law February 10th, 1962, no. 66
in favour of the partial blinds with a visual capacity not higher than a
twentieth in both the eyes, also with possible correction.
The
provision was extended to the minors by the article 14 septies of the Law
February 29th, 1980, no. 33.
In
order to enjoy of the provision, the law establishes that the blind civilians
have to be in state of economic need. For this condition, some limits of
personal income, which must not be exceeded by the holder of the pension, are
annually fixed.
blind
partial: special indemnity
The
special indemnity was instituted by the article 3 of the Law November 21st,
1988, no. 508. The indemnity is granted to the partial blinds. This special
indemnity is supplied to the only title of the handicap, independently by the
age and the personal income.
blind
absolute civilians: accompanying indemnity
The
accompanying indemnity in favour of the blind absolute civilians was instituted
by the Law March 28th, 1968, no. 406 (art. 1). This indemnity is supplied to
the blind absolute civilians to the only title of the handicap and
independently of age and personal income.
Deaf-mutes:
pension
The
law May 26th, 1970, no. 38, had instituted, in deaf-mutes' favour, the monthly
cheque of assistance, economic provision which assumed the "pension"
denomination with the article 14 septies of the Law February 29th, 1980, no.
33. This economic provision is assigned to the deaf-and-dumb person and the
sensory disabled person of the hearing, which have been affected with
congenital deafness or acquired deafness during the evolutionary age, which
deprived him the normal learning of the spoken language. This deafness must not
be of nature exclusively psychic or dependent on cause of war, on work or
service.
In
order to obtain the grant of the provision, all those concerned have to be in
state of need. For this condition some limits of personal income, which must not
be exceeded by the holder of the pension, are annually fixed.
The
communication indemnity was instituted by the article 4 of the law November
21st, 1988, no. 508. Concession criteria are various, depending on the applicant
is adult or minor older than 12 years, or minor
under 12 years and are correlated to the degree
of verified hypoacusia (ministerial Decree February 5th, 1992).
Children
under 12 years of age: the
hypoacusia must be equal or higher than 60 HTL decibels of average among the
500, 1000, 2000 hertz frequencies in the best ear. Children older than 12 years of age: the hypoacusia must be
equal or higher than 75 decibels. It is furthermore required to show that the
beginning of the hypoacusia is previous at the 12 years.
The
fiscal facilities for the taxpayers with disability are composite and directed
above all to the possibility of deducting the expenses from the income base for
the application of the
Irpef (personal income tax) and in direction of a per cent minor of the Iva
(value added tax), which is calculated in the measure of 20% of the commercial
value of the goods, on the purchase. The application of the facilities includes, among the
others, the car sector, in according to demands of those who have a reduced
motor capacity, other help means, technical and data processing subsidies,
sanitary and rehabilitation expenses, expenses for the elimination of physical
obstacles in the homes, reduced taxes for successions and donations in favour
of the people with disabilities, facilities for the purchase of the residence
home. The laws of formation of the annual and multi-annuals budget of the state
are usually the means which regulate the implementation of the fiscal
facilities.
3. PROVISIONS AND RECENT
INTERVENTIONS IN DISABILITY MATTER
An
innovation of great importance, introduced by the Financial Law 2004, is the
refunding of the Law January 9th, 1989 concerning "architectural
dispositions to support the overcoming and the elimination of the obstacles in
the private buildings".
The
assignation of resources of the Fund for social policies is established for the
following aims:
a)
policies for family and in particular for elders and disabled, for an amount
equal to 70 million of euros;
b)
removal of physical obstacles for an amount equal to 20 millions of euros;
c)
services for school integration of disabled pupils, for an amount equal to 40
millions of euros;
The
Law favours the access of people with disability to data processing and
telecommunication tools. This Law defines the
terms of "accessibility" and "supportingÓ technologies, which have to be
respected by public administrations in the use of computer goods and services.
Art. 5, concerning the accessibility to didactic and formative tools, affirms
that all the norms of the present law are applicable to the didactic material
of every school.
Introduction
to the book first, headline XII, of the civil code of the paragraph I,
concerning the institution of the support administration.
Modifying
some articles of the civil code, the Law establishes that the person who is in
the impossibility, also partial or temporary, to arrange for her interests,
because of an infirmity or a physical or psychic disablement, can be assisted
by a support manager, nominated by the tutelary judge.
Furthermore
Italy has received the directive of the European Council 2000/78/ November
27th, 2000 on the equal treatment in occupation and work conditions.
At
last, Italy has received the Roosevelt Disability Award 2003. This prize has
pointed out the engagement of the country, from over thirty years, for the
defence of the rights of the people with disability and the improvement of
their conditions of life.
9.
Please indicate to what extent migrant workers and refugees are enjoying their
economic, social and cultural rights. Please also explain how application for
refugee status are afforded economic, social and cultural rights.
The refugee, according
the Convention of Geneva, enjoys the same treatment granted to the Italian
citizens in matter of:
-
Freedom of belief and religious education;
-
primary education;
-
access to the courts and juridical assistance;
-
protection of literary, artistic, scientific and
industrial property (marks, inventions, ecc),
-
sanitary and economic assistance;
-
social work and social insurance;
-
fiscal matter.
The regular
resident refugee enjoys a not less favourable treatment than the reserved one
to the regular resident foreigner in other matters, as the followings:
-
purchase
of goods and real estate;
-
self-employment;
-
professionals;
-
education of degree different from the primary one;
-
freedom
of movement
The refugee enjoys also
a particular treatment in matter of military service, familiar reunification
and to obtain the Italian citizenship through naturalization.
The refugee benefits, in
particular circumstances, of contributions in money which are granted in the
context of the program of support interventions conceded annually by the
Central Commission for the Recognition of RefugeeÕs Status in cooperation with the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The typologies of intervention can be
exemplified as the followings:
-
welfare interventions aimed to the maintenance of individuals or of
familiar units,
-
interventions for recognized social vulnerability (sick, disabled,
elderly, families with student children in charge, students registered on
universities or on professional courses) or exceptional cases of documented
gravity and urgency;
-
support interventions to the integration in employment.
-
first assistance (90 gg) interventions. This measure is addressed to
those refugees who, subsequently to the recognition, enjoyed the contribution
of first assistance, or who didnÕt obtain it even if
being entitled to receive.
Incoming immigrants, drawing on networks of
relatives or friends, or systems of unregistered employment, arrive from the
south in search of greater security and regular employment. Once they reach the
wealthier zone of the country, the most pressing problem is housing, which
means overcoming the mistrust of local renters, plus high rents and the often
decrepit conditions of the housing put to this purpose. Finding initial employment does not
prove particularly difficult, and there is no questioning the improved quality
of life that has resulted from the second migration. The near subsistence
lifestyle often experienced by workers in Southern Italy contrasts with an
existence more closely in line with the immigrantÕs expectations upon departure in the
northeast regions, where regular employment, as a rule for a fixed period, can
be found, though the first job, even up north, is generally irregular and
necessary for subsequent regularisation.
One of
the industries that absorbs the largest number of immigrants is construction,
which is in a phase of expansion, thanks to investments in infrastructures and
real estate, as well as increased renovation work, as a result of tax
subsidies. In other sectors, such as the tool and die industry, immigrants
compensate for the drastic drop in the offer of manpower as a result of
demographic trends. The employment of immigrants in the told and die industry,
virtually insignificant in the 1990Õs, has today reached noteworthy dimensions:
roughly 2 out of every 100 workers hail from non-EU countries, and the figure
nears 5% within companies employing less than 100 workers. The higher the rate
of employment, the greater the demand for immigrant labour; in a number of the
provinces of the Venetia and Emilia Romagna regions, where unemployment stands
at 2%, the labour supply cannot possibly meet demand, making immigrant labour
an objective necessity. Industrial concerns in Venetia, confirming the regionÕs role as the leading basin of
employment for immigrant labour in Italy, has begun to fill not only unskilled
positions but also skilled jobs with immigrants; this process is frequently
found in the services (the health care sector, paramedical professions and
social assistance), but also in sectors that cross the economy horizontally,
such as informatics, and this despite the current unfavourable economic
situation. When it comes to finding employment in medium-high production
cycles, small concerns are more interested in pre-skills than in skills:
culture, schooling and language; hiring is a more complex process in small
enterprises, where human and personal relations play a key role; it becomes
important to know the language and to be acquainted with habits similar to
ours. There are still problems with the Òculture of workÓ, especially on the
part of citizens from African countries.
Foreign
workers are selected through two approaches generally associated with the size
of the company. Enterprises with more than 50 employees make use of temporary
employment agencies (which, in return for higher costs, offer a longer trial
period with the worker than would be possible under direct hiring practices),
while the most frequent practice among small companies is to use trusted
intermediaries. In such cases there is no full-fledged hiring process, with the
important factor, in addition to skills and a willingness to work, being
experience in previous jobs; past working history plays a significant role in
determining outlooks and prejudices with regard to different national groups.
In the face if wariness caused in part by the different needs brought to the
job, the workplace proves to be the sole site for genuine social contact. The
resolution of conflicts with other workers has been aided by the subsiding of
the fear, on the part of Italian workers, that all job openings will be taken
by foreigners, a concern laid to rest, to a great extent, by the gradual
unionisation of immigrants. The most significant obstacles to full integration
are found outside the job, though the difficulties encountered when not at work
(first and foremost housing) also have a direct effect on the quality of the
work done and the newly hired workerÕs possibility of staying with a
company. A factor that remains important within the workplace is whether or not
the owner or manager promotes what amounts to an attitude of tolerance rather
than out and out integration, creating hybrid situations characterised by a
general willingness to evaluate, in realistic fashion, changes in the climate
and organisation of the company, so as to avoid upsetting the balances
established within the different groups of employees.
The
possibility of moving from one sector of employment to another is limited, as
the different types of work are virtually divided up according to the workers
country or region of origin (construction, farm work and personal services for
immigrants from Eastern Europe; food and agricultural activities and personal
services for North Africans; mechanics, the chemical industry and woodworking
for Africans; the production of leather goods and work in restaurants and
hotels, as well as the manufacturing of furniture, for Asians). A number of
sectors show a marked prevalence of males (the production of leather goods, construction),
while others employ almost exclusively women (the textile sector and personal
services), and still others are mixed (the mechanical and chemical sectors,
plus the food and farming industry).
The CNEL has proposed updating the regulations of implementation
(Presidential Decree 394/1999) of the consolidated text on immigration
(Legislative Decree no. 286/1998), as modified and supplemented by Law no.
189/2002. The implementation of the new legislation should touch on the
following points:
a) the procedures for the establishment of a
unified public service window at the prefectsÕ offices, together with the
computerised integration of the archives; reinforcement of staffing and efforts
aimed at greater efficiency in immigration services at consulates and
diplomatic missions. In fact, the body of the new law, centred around the
procedures of the residence contract, assume as an underlying condition the
operation of the unified window, which would be connected with the pertinent administrative
bodies. Each of these, within the scope of its responsibilities, would
contributed to the effectiveness of a system integrated by information.
b) The operation, in combination with active,
focussed policies, of employment services. The heightened precariousness of
legal residence by foreigners should result in close attention being paid to an
effective relationship between unemployed immigrants and employment services,
so as to enact policies designed to extend residence permits.
c) The formulation of a number of specific
regulatory measures, which, in compliance with the law, would facilitate the
procedure for obtaining and maintaining legal residence. The regulatory
measures proposed in this sense would lend certainty to the procedures,
prerequisites and documentation needed, reducing the bureaucratic expenses
borne by the immigrant, as well as the margins for arbitrary conduct on the
part of the Public Administration.
Details of the proposals made by the Social
Partners are provided.
Residence permit.
The consolidated
text, the law of 2002 and the regulations of 1999 stipulate that, for the
purpose of renewing the residence permit, possession of the means of sustenance
may be demonstrated through the availability of income from work or from
another legitimate source. One way of demonstrating a legitimate source could
be to point to a working activity performed in irregular fashion, meaning off
the books. The worker would be issued a residence permit for expected
employment, renewable and convertible into a residence permit for salaried
employment of self employment in line with the prerequisites of the law.
Consideration should also be given to the position of participants in legally
authorised professional training courses, or to those who are involved in active
labour policies promoted by employment centres, or unable to carry out work
activities for reasons of health. In the case of student permits, the means of
sustenance to be demonstrated could be a scholarship, a bank account made out
top the immigrant or a pledge to provide sustenance (room, board, health care,
the payment of taxes and books) on the part of an association or organisation
officially registered (with the regional, provincial or national government).
On the subject of the documentation to be presented
for the renewal of the permit, the expiration date of the permit could coincide
with that of the passport. It should be possible to present temporary
replacement documents (such as a certificate from the representative of the
home country stating that a passport renewal application has been presented.
Under the budget law for 2001, only
foreigners with residence permits are entitled to the economic assistance
referred to under art. 41 of the Consolidated Text. Foreigners who have
obtained the assistance on the basis of a residence permit cannot present a
residence card, given that the residence card requires legal residence of at
least 6 years, possession of a residence permit eligible for an indeterminate
number of renewals and a subsistence income. In the case of foreigner who risk
falling into a situation of irregularity should the permit not be renewed,
there could be the possibility of demonstrating an alternative source of
sustenance.
To ensure uniformity of administrative
practices, there should be explicit rules and regulations on the types of
residence permits; for each type of permit, the norms of implementation should
provide a definitive indication of the conditions and documents required for
its release, renewal or conversion, as well as its duration and the legal
status of the holder.
There is no measures that establishes
criteria of precedence for requests regarding the conversion of residence
permits for study into residence permits for salaried of self-employment over
requests for new entry by workers (Consolidated Text, art. 6, paragraph 1,
modified by Law 189, art. 7). Given that permits for study may not be renewed
once the academic title has been obtained, or once the individual has let more
than three years go by without attending school, the student risks not taking
advantage of the conversion of the permit and the stabilisation of his or her
residence. There should be a minimum number of new entry spots reserved for
requests for conversion of residence permits for study or for training into
permits for salaried or self employment, with the possibility of increasing the
reserve on the basis of the needs of the provincial labour departments.
Art. 26, paragraph 5, of the consolidated
text, as modified by Law 189, art. 18, paragraph 2, requires that certification
of satisfaction of the prerequisites for self employment be issued by the
Italian diplomatic representatives in the immigrantÕs country of origin. The problem
arises for those who already reside in Italy on a regular basis (students of
foreigners who hold another type of residence permit and could qualify for self
employment under the prerequisites of the law), given that these prerequisites
can be certified by administrative bodies operating in the national territory.
In the case of foreigners regularly residing in Italy, the issuing of
certification on the prerequisites should be made the administrative bodies
responsible for the subject matter and for the territory, meaning, unless other
entities are specifically identified, the unified services windows at the
PrefectÕs Office Ð Territorial Office of the Government.
2. Residence Card.
For the purposes of requesting a residence
card (Consolidated Text, art. 9, paragraph 1, as modified by Law 189, art. 9,
paragraph 1), it must be determined whether the applicant possesses a residence
permit eligible for renewal an unspecified number of times and whether he or
she meets the subsistence requirement at the moment the residence card is
requested and not, as was the case earlier, for all six years of its validity,
in addition to which the precondition of legal residence during the minimum
period stipulated under the law remains to be determined. This clarification
must be explicitly indicated among the norms of implementation, in the same way
that the types of residence permits eligible for an indeterminate number of
renewals must be specified. The seal of control required for the residence card
within ten years from it issue should not depend on a control of the
preconditions stipulated for its initial issue; the lone motive for revocation
of the residence card is that contemplated under art. 9, paragraph 3, of the
Consolidated Text (arts. 380 and
381 of the Code of Criminal Law Procedure).
3. Residence contract for salaried employment.
Art. 22, paragraph
4, or the Unified Text, as modified by Law 189, art. 18, paragraph 1,
stipulates that, in the presence of a request presented under a specific name
for a work permit for a foreign citizen residing abroad, the employment centre
must determine that no national or European Community workers are willing or
available to take the specific position regarding which hiring of the foreigner
is requested. As stated under Law 222/2002 (art. 2, paragraph 9), employers who
have sustained the expense of providing lodging may, as compensation, and for
the entire period of employment, withhold from the employeeÕs wages a monthly sum
that cannot exceed one third of the total monthly pay. It should be specified
that withholding is permitted only if the employer made written communication
to the worker of the amount to be withheld before the worker entered Italy, or,
in the event that the worker was already in Italy, prior to the signing of the
contract at the unified services window. No deductions from wages are permitted
for employment relationships (such as live-in domestic workers, doormen in
residence) for which the national labour contracts call for special economic
treatment in the event that the worker benefits from lodgings provided by the
employer. The following points should also be clarified: 1) the signing of a
residence contract should not be required for the working relationships
specifically referred to under art. 27 of the Consolidated Text and art. 40 of
Presidential Decree 394/1999; 2) for the purposes of renewing a residence
permit for salaried employment, the signing of a new residence contract for
employment is not required, in the event that the relationship with the
employer that signed the initial residence contract for employment is being
continued.
5. Registration on public job
placement lists.
Seeing that the reform of the labour market
has eliminated the obligation of registration on public job placement lists,
the references made in the Regulations to registration on those lists as a
prerequisite to access to rights or services should be eliminated as well.
6.
Entry
in the population registry and in the National Health Care System.
Art. 15, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Regulations, which have modified the
regulations on the population registry found under Presidential Decree
223/1989, stipulates that renewal must be made, within 60 days of renewal of
the residence permit or the residence card, of he declaration of habitual
domicile in the municipality of residence, with the foreigner being removed
from the lists of the resident population in the event of failure to renew that
declaration. It would be best to remove the obligation in question and to call
for cancellation from the lists solely in the event that the municipal
government is notified by the chief of police of the definitive termination of
the foreignerÕs
residence permit, with the exception of cases in which the foreigner
demonstrates that an appeal is pending against the aforementioned measure. A
similar modification should be made in art. 42, paragraph 4 of the Regulations,
with regard to the obligatory presentation of a document demonstrating that
renewal of the permit has been applied for in order to maintain registration in
the National Health Care Service; registration in the health care service
should cease only following notification from the chief of police to the Local
Health Care Enterprise of the definitive expiration of the residence permit, or
of an order of expulsion, with the exception of cases in which the foreign
presents documentation
demonstrating that an appeal has been brought against the measure.
6. The right to family unit.
Reunification with spouses and children is a
factor that increases the sense of responsibility of a foreign citizen towards
the community in which he or she lives, reinforcing social stability and
favouring integration. Steps should be taken to simplify the procedure for
issue by central police commands of the authorisation for family reunification;
under the current legislation, the most significant obstacle to reunification
is the requirement that the request for the authorisation presented at the
greatest in base unified window for immigration services of the PrefectÕs office be accompanied by documents
demonstrating the family relationships of blood relatives, spouses or minors
and authenticated by Italian consular authorities abroad. A first step could be
to make it possible for the interested parties to request legalisation of the
documentation by the Italian authorities abroad by sending the foreign
documents to be legalised through the mail, enclosing an indication to the
effect that the legalisation is necessary for presentation of an application
for authorisation of family reunification, together with an indication of the unified
services window at which the application will be presented. The legalised
documentation should automatically be transmitted by the office of the consular
authority to the unified services window in question, as well as to the
applicant.
In terms of the demonstration of housing, it
would be best to introduce a definitive time period within which the
certification of suitable housing must be issued, with he immigrant having the
option, once the period has expired, of replacing the certification of suitability
with the real estate registry certification of the dwelling and the document
demonstrating his or her title to the dwelling (contract of ownership, rental,
use, habitation etc.).
With regard to proof of the minimum required
level of income from a legitimate source, the alternatives should include
scholarships and work training stipends.
7. Foreign minors.
The Consolidated Text states that foreign
minors accompanied by one or both parents who are regular residents are entered
on the residence permit or residence card of one or both of the parents until
they reach 14 years of age, and that, at the age of 14, the minor is issued a
residence permit for family motives or a residence card, up until 18 years of
age. Once the individual comes of age (art. 32 of the Consolidated Text), the
legislation lends itself to a number of different interpretations, leading the
central police commands to decide between a residence permit for study and a
residence permit for work. It would be best to specify that, upon coming of
age, a foreigner who holds a residence permit for family motives may be issued
one of the types of residence permits contemplated under the legislation, or
may maintain the residence permit for family reasons, assuming that one or more
of the parents guarantees the income to support the child. Art. 25 of Law 189
has introduced, under art. 32 of the Consolidated Text, the possibility of
residence permits being issued to unaccompanied foreign minors when they come
of age. In such cases it is necessary that the measures of implementation
specifically contemplate the possibility of minors who hold residence permits
for underage foreigners carrying out working activities under the forms and
procedures authorised by Italian Law. It would be best to eliminate from the
regulations the margin for ambiguous interpretations regarding the conversion
of the residence permit upon reaching the age of eighteen, adopting, in
accordance with the provisions of the Convention of ChildrenÕs Rights, an interpretation that
complies with the principle of the minorÕs interest being paramount. It is
recommended that it be stipulated that minors who are subject to a measure
assigning them to foster care, as per the provisions of art. 2 of Law no.
184/1983, and who have lodgings or attend
courses of study, or who carry out paid working activities under the
forms and procedures contemplated by Italian Law, or who possess an employment
contract, even if they have not yet begun working, or demonstrate that they
meet the requirements for self employment, or who demonstrate present a
documented need for health care,
may benefit from the issue of a residence permit for reasons of study, access
to work, salaried employment or self employment, or needs involving health care
or treatment, upon coming of age, as per the provisions of art. 32, paragraph
1, of the Consolidated Text, even when no ruling has been issued by the
Committee on Foreign Minors, and regardless of whether the prerequisites
contemplated under paragraphs 1-b and c of art. 32 of the Consolidated Text are
satisfied. Minors who meet these last prerequisites may benefit from issue of a
residence permit for reasons of study or access to work, or for salaried or
self employment, upon coming of age, regardless of the previous issue of a
ruling assigning them to foster care. Participation in a project of social and
civil integration for the issue of a residence permit upon coming of age, as
per the provisions of art. 32, paragraphs 1-b and c of the Consolidated Text,
may be demonstrated through certification that the minor has attended courses
of study or professional training courses, or has carried out activities geared
towards entered the workforce, or has performed actual working activities. Control
of the conditions referred to under art. 32, paragraphs 1-b and c, for the
purpose of reaching a decision on the issue of a residence permit when a
foreign minor comes of age, is carried out by the social services, or, as a
secondary alternative, by the PrefectÕs office of the area in which the
minor is domiciled; the results of the control are communicated to the central
police command with jurisdiction. In cases where called for in the paramount
interest of the minor, the police chief may stipulate more favourable
conditions than those established under art. 32, paragraphs 1-b and c of the
Consolidated Text. Residence permits issued upon the coming of age of a minor
are deducted (paragraph 1-d of the Consolidated Text) from the entry quotas set
under the decrees for planning immigration flows issued following the
conversion of the residence permit.
8. Foreign family members of Italian
citizens.
The rules governing the reunification of a
foreign family member and an Italian citizen are not well defined, nor are
those regarding the issue of a residence card to the family member. It would be
best to reorganise the subject, stipulating that requirements of income and
housing are not considered for the purpose of the reunification of a foreigner
with an Italian family member, and that a residence card is issued to any
foreign family member of an Italian citizen who has entered Italian territory
for reunification, or is otherwise authorised to reside therein, without having
to meet the prerequisites of income and housing.
9. Foreign citizens of Italian origin.
Foreign citizens of Italian origin who are
entitled to receive citizenship under iuris sanguinis, and who apply for
recognition of citizenship in Italy, possess a foreign passport and are subject
to the rules and regulations that govern the entry and residence of foreigners.
The municipal governments are responsible for receiving applications for
recognition of citizenship only in the event of residence in Italy. It would be
best to arrange for the issue, based on a certification of Italian ancestry
legalised by the Italian consular authorities, of a residence permit "for
procurement of citizenship", valid for the period of the procedure for the
recognition of citizenship and entitling the holder to entry in the register of
the resident population.
10.
Under articles 3, 35 and 37 of the State party's Constitution and in accordance
with Law 903/77, men and women are given equal treatment. However, women suffer
de facto discrimination. Please indicate what measures have been taken to
bridge the gap between legislation and practices on gender equality.
Representation of Women in Elective Bodies and Public Offices
The bill modifying Article 51 of ItalyÕs Constitution, which introduces the
principle of equality in access to political offices, has been passed.
Thanks to the new text of Article
51, for the first time the concept of equal opportunities has entered into the
Constitution, thus compelling the Republic to foster Òequal opportunities for
men and women by means of appropriate provisionsÓ. It states the rights of all
citizens, on an equality basis, to access public offices and elective
appointments. Once the law is in force, it will only be a question of
identifying the suitable regulatory and administrative instruments to make it
fully effective.
Reorganisation of Equal Opportunity Bodies
Alongside the government,
the National Commission for equal opportunities, which was set up under the
Presidency of the Council of Ministers, by law no. 164 of June 2, 1990, is
working on these issues.
This organ has organised numerous conferences, which have contributed to
the dissemination of awareness of womenÕs rights, and has also organised a
series of study groups on many of the subjects that the Ministry for Equal
Opportunities is working on.
A working group has been set up under delegated power issued by the
Parliament (Article 13, Law no. 137/2002), composed of representatives of the
Ministry for Equal Opportunities, and the authorities involved in the
restructuring of the Government structure, which is in charge of examining
institutional and normative problems related to the reorganisation of equal
opportunities bodies at a national level.
Over time, especially during the period before the Ministry for Equal
Opportunities was established (1996), an overlapping of structures in equal
opportunities bodies has frequently occurred; so the aim of the reform is to
rationalise them, so as to prevent overlapping and duplication of competencies
and limit public spending. This reform is well underway.
Elimination of Discrimination
As regards the general activity in the fight
against discrimination and in order to ensure the full implementation of the
policies on equal opportunities for men and women, various Study groups have
been set up. These groups, composed of highly qualified experts, are in charge of working out suitable
operative strategies to guarantee equal opportunities, to be translated into
acts, and normative and administrative provisions.
They have also been assigned the following
tasks:
a) Study group ÒWomen and sportÓ (established by
Ministerial Decree of February 28, 2002).
The group has the task of monitoring any
problems that women may have in participating in sports, at an amateur as well
as a professional level. This has been done through a questionnaire, which has
been sent to all sports leagues. There will also be a series of meetings and
hearings with the various associations and sports leagues.
b) Study group ÒEqual opportunities,
health and safeguarding citizensÓ (established by
Ministerial Decree of February 28,
2002).
In the first phase the group is working on the
following issues: 1) health care for women with particular reference to
problems related to pregnancy and delivery; 2) female anxiety and depression;
3) care of the elderly within the family; 4) beauty care.
c) Study group ÒWomenÕs role in communicationsÓ (established by
Ministerial Decree of April 30, 2002).
This study group, set up by decree by the
Ministry for Equal Opportunities, together with the Minister for
Communications, is in charge of analysing: 1) the level of women present in the
communications sector, in the press, as well as on television and radio, with particular attention to
advertising, institutional, political and business communications; identifying roles and responsibilities;
2) how women are represented by
the mass media. In order to carry out a survey on how women are represented by
the mass media, the National Commission for Equality has drawn up guidelines
which set out some basic principles that should be followed in order to
correctly represent and foster a positive image of women.
The guidelines set the standards the Commission
will comply with throughout the survey.
The Commission has also drawn up a series of
initiatives to obtain data related to the presence of women in the press and on
television and radio, from the main agencies, as well as launching a system of
monitoring television broadcasts, particularly in the information,
entertainment, fiction and advertising sectors.
d) Study group ÒWomen, art and
cultureÓ established by Ministerial Decree
of February 18, 2002
This group is examining women who operate in the various
sectors of Italian culture - from literature and theatre to cinema, from music
to dance - in order to deepen our knowledge of womenÕs artistic and cultural production. To do this, the group
is monitoring the presence of women in the various artistic sectors, and
examining the normative and institutional problems which could impede womenÕs full realisation, with the support of a documentation
centre for all legislative acts and regulations regarding this sector.
e) Study group ÒSexuality, discrimination and
social integrationÓ established by Ministerial Decree
of January 18, 2002).
This group is examining the institutional and
normative problems which could lead to gender discrimination; at present it is
studying the national regulatory framework and carrying out a comparative study
with other European Union countries.
At the same time, the group is investigating
family problems linked to sexuality, levels of social integration, in its
broadest sense, of homosexuals, as well as awareness and dissemination of
information on AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases.
These issues are also partly being dealt with,
as they touch upon questions related to work, by the legislative office which is implementing EU directive no. 2000/78, which lays
down a general framework for equality of treatment in employment and working
conditions. The implementation will prohibit discrimination at work for reasons
related to religion, personal beliefs, handicap, age and sexual preferences,
and is to be enforced by prompt and effective legal action, restoring workersÕ
rights and providing for compensation.
An office is being set
up to monitor and guarantee equality of treatment, under directive 2000/43/CE
of the Council of June 29, 2002, provided in attachment B of National Community
Law no. 39/2002, which lays down the principle of equal treatment between people,
regardless of race and ethnic origin. A new Office for the Control and
Guarantee of Equal Treatment will be created within the Ministry for Equal
Opportunities in 2003.
Recent Regulatory Initiatives
The governmentÕs commitment to the fight against discrimination is also born out by two
commitments recently endorsed by the Council of Ministers.
The first is a governmental bill presented to Parliament to fight
prostitution, which often represents the highest level of exploitation of
women.
In Italy, in fact, due to the increase in immigration and the
involvement of organised crime in exploiting prostitution, there has not only
been an increase in people who voluntarily take up prostitution, but especially
in organised crime which exploits the prostitution of others.
The bill prohibits prostitution in public places or places open to the
public, because this is where the worst cases of criminal sexual exploitation
thrive.
Approximately 25,000 foreign prostitutes have been brought to Italy over
the past few years, and forced to prostitute themselves under threat of
violence from their exploiters.
Introducing the ban on prostitution in public places, or places open to
the public, into our Criminal Code, with sanctions that will be applied to the
prostitute as well as to the client, aims to disrupt the systematic meeting of
supply and demand in the flourishing market of sex for payment.
However, in consideration of the strong link between prostitution on the
streets and the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings (see sub chapter VI),
in order to avoid criminalising
people who have already been victims of serious violence, a specific
case of immunity from punishment is provided, which excludes sanctions against those
who can prove that they have been forced into prostitution against their will.
Furthermore, with respect to these cases the government has decided to
increase the funding of programs of social protection for those who intend to
leave the prostitution racket. The bill set forth the annual budget for social
protection programs, pursuant to the application of article 18 of the code on
immigration, approved with legislative decree 286/1998, which has already
enabled many victims of the slave trade to escape from the conditioning and
violence of criminal organisations dedicated to the exploitation of
prostitution, also with the voluntary collaboration of the law enforcement
agencies.
Ten million Euros per year for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005 will be
allocated for the social rehabilitation of victims, which accounts for an
increase of 5,580,000 Euros.
In a broad perspective, in order to stem prostitution, which touches
upon many sensitive areas, the government has not opted for regulation, because
the newly introduced prohibition does not mean the reopening of brothels or
eros centers, nor for abolition, because prostitution is not forbidden inside a
house which is being used legitimately. Prostitution is therefore confined -
especially for those who voluntarily exercise prostitution - to the private sphere.
With regards to this, two other cases which are not punishable have been
introduced: for people who practice prostitution and provide reciprocal
assistance without making a profit, and for those who provide housing where
prostitution is exercised, provided they do not make undue profits.
This seemed a reasonable attempt, now under examination in Parliament,
to eradicate prostitution in accordance with the commitments taken on under the
1950 UN Convention of, ratified by Law 1173 of 23 November 1966, in which
prostitution and the related phenomenon of trafficking in human beings, are
condemned as incompatible with the dignity and values of the human person.
The second governmental commitment regards the response from the
Ministry for Equal Opportunities to prompting from EU legislation.
First, the Minister requested and obtained the transposition of EU
Directive 2002/73 into Community Law in 2003, in order to accelerate the
drafting of the relevant Legislative Decree for implementation, whereas the EU
had set the deadline for October 2005.
This directive introduces significant novelties to the issue of equal
treatment between men and women in terms of job access, vocational training,
career advancement, and employment conditions.
It is an issue which is very dear to EU legislation. Equality between
men and women is, in fact, a fundamental principle set out in articles 2 and 3
of the European Union Treaty, as well as being dealt with in its substantial
body of laws. Equality is considered a primary objective of the community, and
it is committed to applying gender mainstreaming to all activities.
With the approval of the Community Bill of 2003, the Government has
taken concrete steps to implement the directive. Where necessary legislation
has been modified: law no.125/1991 was modified by decree law no. 196/2000,
which introduced so called positive action into the field of employment and
instituted an ad-hoc official, the "equality advisor", to defend
female workers, who operate at a provincial, regional and national level (see
sub chapter IV). This is a very advanced norm which deals with women who have
been prejudiced by discriminatory behaviour in the work place, but it needs
further updating.
The criteria set out to implement the aforementioned directive (article
16 of Community Bill, 2003), as reported in the normative implementation
provision approved by the Council
of Ministers, are the following:
a) to guarantee the effective application of the principle of equality
of treatment between men and women at work, ensuring that gender difference is
not cause of direct or indirect discrimination, in a perspective which takes
into account marital status or family, relative to: conditions of access to the
job market, whether as employees or self-employed; relations between employee
and employer, remuneration and conditions of dismissal; access to all types and
levels of vocational training, specialisation and requalification courses,
including apprenticeships; activities carried out for workers' or employers' organisations
and access to jobs provided by these organisations.
b) to define the notion of discrimination as
"direct" when a person is treated less favourably on the basis of
gender, than another person is, has been, or would have been treated in an analogous situation; to define the
notion of discrimination as "indirect" when an apparently neutral rule, criteria or procedure puts one gender at a particular
disadvantage, with respect to the other sex, except in cases where the
different treatment is justified by objective reasons, i.e. in the case of jobs
where specific sexual characteristics are essential requisites to the execution
of the work; to define the notion of "harassment" when, for reasons
related to gender, undesirable behaviour objectively prejudices a person's
dignity and liberty, creating an atmosphere of hostile intimidation and
humiliation; to define the notion of "sexual harassment" when said
behaviour has manifest sexual overtones; and lastly to consider harassment and
sexual harassment as discrimination;
c) to provide for the implementation of the principle of equality of
treatment without gender distinction in all sectors of work, public and
private, ensuring that, whilst complying with the norms in the sector, those who have suffered damage are
entitled to legal and/or administrative safeguards, and are guaranteed redress
or equal compensation;
d) to recognise the right of representative associations to take legal
and/or administrative action when members feel discriminated against, by
delegation of the injured party, i.e. to provide for cases of collective
discrimination where the injured persons are not directly or easily
identifiable, so that the
association can file charges on their behalf.
With respect to the previous norms, the main novelty is the introduction
of a specific norm to combat sexual harassment in the work place.
The Ministry for Equal Opportunities has also set up a study group,
"Women and work" (under ministerial decree on 1 July 2002), which is
examining primary and secondary legislature, so as to assess, during the
implementation phase, the effectiveness of the current measures to combat
gender discrimination in the work place. The study, which is already underway,
monitors the legal instruments provided to safeguard women with regards to: 1)
access to the labour market; 2) obtaining different types of flexible
contracts; 3) vocational training and retraining, specialisation, and
remuneration; 4) the adequacy of the existing instruments to defend women in
case of sexual harassment in the work place, with a view to elaborating new
proposals in line with European measures; 5) problems related to running the
household; 6) measures which will allow working women to reconcile their work
schedule with their family life.
II.
ISSUES RELATING ON SPECIFIC PROVISIONS OF THE COVENANT (arrt. 6-15)
11.
Unemployment in the State party is still high. Despite all efforts, the
unemployment rate in 2001 reached 10.1 per cent. Please explain why the
national plans to combat unemployment have failed to reduce the high
unemployment rate, especially among women.
According to the ISTAT statistical
institute, 2002 marked the seventh consecutive year in which the labour market
grew. Despite the economic slowdown, the crises of individual corporations and
social tensions, the number of employed workers rose by 315 thousand units,
while the number of the unemployed decreased by 104 thousand; the workforce
rose by 211 thousand units. Compared to 2001, employment increased at a higher
rate than both the population and the workforce, which grew by respective
figures of 0.2% and 0.9%. This means that participation in the workforce grew,
that a portion of the latent supply of labour has become explicit, and that
Italian society, on the whole, is more Òat workÓ today than was the case
yesterday; this has encouraged the search for employment outside of the
individualÕs zone of residence, as demonstrated by the continuation of the
migratory flow northward.
The centre of gravity of the Italian labour market,
in terms of both difficulties and opportunities, has shifted in the direction
of the adult age groups. Compared to 10 years ago, there are more temporarily
employed adults, more adult women employed, both stably and temporarily, and
more unemployed adults, both men and women. In the recent past, the problem
facing families was the need to organise themselves to manage the long and
difficult process of introducing the younger members into the labour market.
Full employment of the male head of the male head of the family, plus the
eventual supplementary employment of the woman, made it possible to absorb the
social and economic consequences of unemployment. But in recent years the
problem of unemployment among young people has become less acute in terms of
its extension (though not as regards its seriousness, seeing that the rates
remain high). Adult female employment, taking on a role that is not merely
supplementary, is a new factor that provides families with additional margins
for coping with the problems tied to unemployment among young people. A
situation which, in the past, had been of minor importance is beginning to
manifest itself: unemployment and unstable employment among both male and
female adults, with the simultaneous presence in a given family of both youth
and adult unemployment.
The
male and the female labour markets find themselves in the midst of different
phases: the former is relatively stabilised, with the turnover of the workforce
ensuring a sufficient number of new entries to keep the unemployment situation
from worsening excessively. The rate of female activity, on the other hand,
continues to grow, though the underlying stock of employment opportunities is
still too limited; what is more, the average age of employed women is lower,
meaning that the rate of retirement is less pronounced. Given these factors,
even a slight slowdown in economic growth is sufficient to increase
unemployment drastically.
During the period 1993-97, male and female
unemployment moved together, in an upwards direction, though the employment
situations differed: male employment had fallen significantly, while there had
been a slight increase in female. In the whole, it proves more difficult to
reabsorb female unemployment, which, in order to keep the same pace as male
employment, must turn in results 3 to 4 times greater, seeing that the massive
entry of women on the labour market is a relatively recent trend, and that
women continue to be under-represented in the sector of self employment. Women
still encounter greater difficulty in finding a job, despite the growth in
their participation in the workforce. In terms of their position on the
professional scale, in just a few years, progress has been made, and it is on
account of this very progress that the enduring underestimation is all the more
burdensome, on account of the fact that it is less ÒnaturalÓ, especially in light of the higher
level of education among women. Cultural considerations have weighed, and
continue to weigh, in employment relationships, but it is difficult to trace
all gender discrimination to cultural influences, with the facts of a given
situation playing a role as well. The data unanimously point to family
commitments as a source of career difficulties, and not only in terms of reconciling
the demands of the company and individual choices, but also as regards the
duration and distribution of working hours. This leads back to the mechanisms
through which the labour market operates, standing out precisely because trends
in female employment represent the truly new development in recent years,
together with the formation of a labour market that is more mobile and richer
in terms of both opportunities and risks. The Òfamily modelÓ which, for decades, served as the
underpinnings for both the labour market and the Italian social system, is
being significantly restructured, though it is not yet clear what direction the
changes will take. In the central northern regions, the objective of female
employment occupies almost all the available space for participation, and it is
hard to see how employment among women can increase further without a new
expansion of part-time employment.
In general terms, the gender differences that
still characterise the Italian labour market have been influenced by the
patterns of participation and mobilisation of women, as well as the regulation
of labour. The most demanding and troubled instrument of regulation, largely
because of the cultural repercussions and the symbolic significance, has been
part-time work. A perfect example is the Campania region, which has the lowest
rate of female employment in all of Southern Italy (24.03%), despite the fact
that female employment has grown more rapidly than in the other regions, with
the explanation being that the women
of Campania register the lowest rate of Òpart-timersÓ (just 10.2%). The original
introduction of part-time, as well as the supplementary and corrective measures
that have followed, all point to a characteristic that is distinctive to Italy:
the delay in the introduction of this form of employment, combined with
restrictions initially placed on its use by companies, all contribute to
explaining why its practice is still relatively scarce. The question is further
complicated by two circumstances: first of all, the fact that part-time work is
under-utilised in vast sectors of the Public Administration and in banks, in
addition to which its duration in terms of hours is significantly higher than
the average. The less extensive practice can be traced to the late-arriving and
partial legitimisation of a mode of work far removed from the working world and
culture as these existed in Italy between the 1950Õs and 60Õs; part-time work was viewed as Òhalf a jobÓ and held to be a stigma for female
employment.
What pulls down employment rates is less the
fact of being part of couple than that of having children: women who live with
a man but do not have children show higher rates of employment than women who
are alone and must raise children. A sharp drop in employment is registered
among women who have children and live with a man, meaning that they can count
on the economic support of their spouse. What we have stated is especially true
in the central-north regions; in the South it is the transformation from being
single to being part of a couple, rather than the burden of a family, that
holds down participation: in fact, the rate of employment among women who live
with a man, but without children, is distinctly lower than that of single women
with children, while the opposite is true in the central-north regions. A
consideration should be kept in mind: having children, whether with a partner
or alone, increases the difficulty of looking for work, with rates of
unemployment proving to be significantly higher than those for women without
children.
The possibility of reconciling work and family
duties is influenced not only by the duration of the work, but also by the
daily and weekly distribution of the working hours, as well as the eventual use
of shift mechanisms. There is much discussion of atypical jobs, but a good deal
less of atypical hours, meaning work schedules that take a full-fledged shift
approach, or that occur in non-traditional moments of the day; along these
lines, it should be noted that, in families where the man has atypical hours,
the percentage of women who work under that same type of schedule is very high
(42.5%). Things are more simple for couple who work inside the same production
setting or in the same family company; even in these cases, however, reconciling
work and family process to be a complicated matter: the handling of the
children proves easier, but relations with the spouse become more difficult, in
addition to which there is a further complication caused by demographics: namely the fact that grandparents, who
could once look after the grandchildren, today find themselves increasingly
obliged to look, after their own
parents.
The participant of women who are mothers in
the labour market varies a great deal, depending on area of residence, level of
education and number of children. Looking at new mothers, 63.2% of those living
in the central-northern regions work while only 32.5% of such women work in
Southern Italy; 76% of women with university degrees work, while the figure for
women with no more than middle school or elementary school diplomas is only
32%; finally, the majority of new mothers with only one child are employed
(57%), while the percentage falls to 44.7% for women with 2 or more children.
The data show that, in practice, the right to choose between family and work is
only theoretical[1]. 14% of
women who work during pregnancy leave their jobs because they cannot reconcile
the hours with their family commitments. Such decisions have significant
consequences for the socio-economic condition of the family: when both parents
work, 16% of the families find themselves having to deal with economic
difficulties following the birth of the child; if the mothers are housewives,
on the other hand, the percentage rises to 26%. Leaving work is meant to be a
momentary choice: of the women who had worked at some point in their lives, but
who did not work while pregnant or at the time of the interview, 71% wanted to
work once again in the future, while the percentage fell to 50% for women who
had never worked. An interruption in working activities, however, can make the
risk of not re-entering the working word, or of staying outside for an extended
period, quite high. This is even more so in areas where there is less
opportunity for work, as in the south, where the majority of the women who do not work reside.
Part-time employment is the solution for 43% of the mothers in the central-north regions and 31% of those in the south. Part-time employment is especially frequent among women with 2 or more children (43%), as well as those with medium-low levels of schooling and those who work in the private sector (48.4%) or in the area of services and commercial activities (55%). Part-time work is perceived as a way of reconciling demands, assuming it is a voluntary, reversible condition, and it is always, on any event, associated with a greater degree of instability. In fact, there is an elevated risk of either leaving or losing oneÕs job following the birth of the child: his happens to roughly 70% of the mothers who work part-time, as opposed to 16% of those who work full-time. The main reason is the fact that part-time contracts are often temporary or occasional in nature. There is also a percentage of unwilling part-time workers, meaning women who make due with part-time jobs, having encountered difficulty in finding a full-time job, with this being especially true in the south and in medium-low professional positions. Tools for optional absence from work and parental leaves are more frequently used in the north (81% of the recent mothers) than in the south (66%), and generally by women with high school (79%) or college educations (75%), as well as lower titles of study (68%). Women in the south tend to return to work earlier, as a rule on account of economic needs (39% university graduates, 51% high school graduates and 63% with lower titles of study); the need to return to work because oneÕs presence is required on the job primarily regards women who are university graduates and, to a lesser degree, high school graduates, as well as women who have completed their obligatory schooling.
The principles of opportunity that inspired
the legislation on parental leaves, which represent a valid tool for allowing
mothers and fathers to handle both small children and work, have not, to date,
been fulfilled; only 7% of the fathers have taken a period of parental leave
within the first two years of the childÕs life, while 4% intend to take
one in the future. A father taking time off from work to care for children is
still stigmatised as Òsomething a woman should doÓ. In addition, access to this
instrument is not equal, as it is primarily used by women who can afford to do
so. The distinguishing characteristic of the Italian approach is the intensive
use of informal networks and inter-generational solidarity; 6 out of 10
children are cared for by the grandparents when the mother works; this is due
primarily to the lack of services for small children: only 2 out of 10 attend a
public or private nursery school. In terms of the different territories, the
south shows a slightly lower percentage of children cared for by grandparents
(52%, compared to 56% in the north), with a higher percentage cared for by
babysitters (13%, as opposed to 10% in the north) and other family members of acquaintances
(5%, compared to 2% in the north), or by the parent themselves (11%, as opposed
to 8% in the north). The most significant differences are observed on the topic
of nursery schools (the percentage of children attending public nursery schools
is 6% in the south, 13% in the central regions and 15% in the north), with the
data confirming the fact that fewer public services for small children are
available in the southern regions. The burden of caring for grandchildren rests
to a significant extent on the grandparents, while the opportunity to attend a
public nursery school increases for children with other brothers or sisters.
Such an intensive use of family support in the raising of children stands as a
critical variable of the system, especially in light of current demographic and
social tendencies, which point to the situation becoming even more acute.
Mothers who would like to use the childcare services but cannot list, among the
most frequent reasons, the lack of openings (approximately 22%), the lack of
nursery schools in their town or city of residence (approximately 21%) and
charges that are too expensive (19%).
A final consideration to be made with regard
to the workload borne by new mothers is housework. The division of family tasks
is disproportionately divided, to the detriment of women, even when they have
jobs outside of the home. The number of hours spent by women on domestic
activities proves to be nearly triple that of men, and the difference is
reduced only slightly when employed individuals are involved. The workload for
mothers is even heavier, if they
have no help in performing housework and cannot count on the cooperation of
their companion.
The criticisms raised against the initiatives contemplated under the Pact for Italy centre, on the one hand, on the lack of precision of the instruments meant to reconcile flexibility with security, and, on the other hand, the distance between the positive objectives proposed and the actions that must b e undertaken to achieve them. In short, the criticisms underline the need to pay greater attention to making better use of female labour, to increase the supply of childcare services and to utilise elderly labour by raising the effective age of retirement. Services providing that assist with caring for children and dependent family members must be improved, and incentives must be provided to encourage individuals over the age of 55 to remain active and refrain from leaving the workforce, especially in the north. Steps must be taken to remedy the fact that Italy is the country which makes the least use of nursery schools, for reasons tied to working schedules and the overall organisation of society; operating costs must be reduced, and both private and pubic offerings must be expanded, with schedules rendered more flexible. To this end, the budget law for 2003 established a rotating fund meant to finance employers who create nursery school and micro-nursery school services within their companies.
Other areas in which corrective efforts are
called for include: the North-South gap, which has remained a characteristic of
the country, together with unregistered work; the system of social buffers,
that still permits major instances of inequality between large and small firms;
the delay in the implementation of the reforms of he public employment service
and the strategy for continuous training throughout the workerÕs lifetime. On the first point, a
mix of different instruments could be used, such as tax reductions on
low-income labour and increased incentives for legalising unregistered jobs.
Most important are fundamental initiatives that contribute to enlarging the
underlying stock of jobs while taking into account the drop in the birth rate
and the ageing of the population. This approach identifies three different
targets, which correspond to an equal number of critical factors that play a
crucial role in ensuring active permanence on the market and suitability for
employment of a population consisting of both genders, plus expansion of the
production base to zones of high development and equity in the generational
balance between employed and retired individuals, not only in terms of
financial factors but as regards social concerns as well. The lengthening of
life expectancy, the postponement of active life and the discontinuity of
working careers make any form of early withdrawal from activity increasingly
costly. Compared to the European average, are rate of activity among adult
males is on the low side, but it collapses by no less than 15 points in precisely
the age group most susceptible to early retirement: 55-59 year olds; among
women, the activity rate shows a 15 point gap among 50-54 years olds and a
difference of 20 points for 55-59 year olds. Immigration represents a useful
but only partial response to these three targets, especially in terms of the
demographic decline that has afflicted the country for years now, ever since
fertility in the southern regions, which sustained a birth rate typically
higher than the European average, began to decline, and this despite the fact
that women in the south registered
levels of participation in the workforce and employment much lower than in the
north.
12.
Please indicate the extent of the problem of high participation of women in the
informal labour market, especially in the south of the country, and what
effective measures have been introduced to deal with this problem.
Application
of the provisions on the equal treatment between men and women in work matter
with particular reference to the Laws December 9th , 1977, N. 903
and 10th April 1991, N. 125 (as modified and integrated by the
Governmental Decree May 23rd, 2000, N.196).
Implementation
of the art. 9 Law March 8th , 2000, N. 53 (Measures to support
working hours flexibility).
In
particular, the art. 9 of the law has introduced forms of flexibility of the
time, with reference in priority way, but not exclusively, to the care of the
children, providing for contributions in favour of companies which apply contractual
agreements with positive actions
for the flexibility.
On
April 2nd, 2004 the Council of the Ministers approved the governmental Decree,
which rationalises the
supervisory functions in matter of work and social security. This Decree provides the
institution of a central Commission of coordination of the supervision
activity, with the task to
identify the strategic addresses and the priorities for the interventions. Such
Committee, instituted with decree of the Minister of Labour and Social
Policies, is composed by the Minister of Labour and of the Social Policies or
by a delegated deputy minister, as president; by the general director of the
National Social Insurance Agency (INPS); by the general director of Italian WorkersÕ Compensation Authority (INAIL); by the general director of
the RevenuesÕ Agency; by the President Of The National
Committee on the irregular work; by four
employersÕ representatives and four workersÕ
representatives designated by the most representative trade unions at the
national level.
Results
of the controls carried out by INPS (Nationa Social Insurance Agency) in early
months of 2004, in order to contrast the shadow economy and the employment of
black labour force.
|
REGION |
CONTROL NUMBER |
IRREGULAR COMPANIES |
IRREGULAR WORKERS |
ILLEGAL WORKERS |
Evaded contributions (mln euro) |
|
PIEMONTE |
2.921 |
1.923 |
1.873 |
1.835 |
23.199 |
|
VAL DÕAOSTA |
115 |
67 |
33 |
28 |
210 |
|
LOMBARDIA |
5.749 |
4.395 |
2.717 |
2.405 |
70.455 |
|
LIGURIA |
1.778 |
1.318 |
385 |
379 |
12.459 |
|
TRENTINO A.A. |
643 |
403 |
1.261 |
668 |
5.481 |
|
VENETO |
3.299 |
1.897 |
1.264 |
1.290 |
23.456 |
|
FRIULI V.G. |
1.105 |
725 |
1.237 |
1.212 |
6.420 |
|
EMILIA ROM. |
4.107 |
3.263 |
1.745 |
1.474 |
21.394 |
|
TOSCANA |
3.198 |
2.540 |
1.623 |
1.550 |
27.124 |
|
UMBRIA |
393 |
321 |
212 |
188 |
3.864 |
|
MARCHE |
1.289 |
1.043 |
563 |
444 |
8.731 |
|
LAZIO |
2.886 |
2.026 |
869 |
826 |
47.182 |
|
ABRUZZO |
837 |
704 |
413 |
413 |
9.077 |
|
MOLISE |
104 |
81 |
130 |
74 |
1.627 |
|
CAMPANIA |
4.115 |
2.179 |
2.139 |
2.130 |
36.607 |
|
PUGLIA |
2.256 |
1.363 |
933 |
925 |
31.305 |
|
BASILICATA |
602 |
337 |
73 |
73 |
3.362 |
|
CALABRIA |
1.245 |
908 |
344 |
343 |
13.744 |
|
SICILIA |
2.982 |
2.042 |
2.050 |
2.037 |
42.187 |
|
SARDEGNA |
526 |
455 |
412 |
404 |
9.045 |
|
TOTALE |
40.150 |
28.530 |
20.376 |
18.698 |
396.974 |
The Italian Strategy to
Equality on the Labour Market
For the last few years, Italy has intensified efforts to activate mainstreaming policies and positive actions aimed at equality and equal opportunities, also motivated by the ECÕs frequent joint financing for many action plans.
The actions taken so far have been directed at increasing the number of law provisions enhancing womenÕs labour market participation Ð and, more generally, their participation in active policies. Most provisions focus on self-employment and entrepreneurial opportunities and on reconciling work and family life Ð actions are increasingly based on programming, i.e., on setting goals and priority reference areas in advance.
The National Action Plan (NAP) for Employment is one of the most significant tools for programming national policies, based on strategies aiming, inter alia, at achieving equal opportunities, NAPs are drafted annually on the basis of EC guidelines. Their goals include raising employment rates and increasing job creation, giving momentum to the creation of new enterprises and to the entrepreneurial spirit in general, and promoting equal opportunities. Labour policies result not only from governmental initiatives; in compliance with the concertation (social agreement) principle, they are produced in collaboration with the social partners, with particular reference to trade unions and entrepreneursÕ associations.
NAPs report strategies as well as all the actions started or completed in the reference period and the relevant funds allocations; this allows monitoring all innovation and development processes underway in single member states.
Given the existing regional disparities, the national strategy is articulated through actions differentiated by region. Northern Italy needs active and preventive policies targeted for populations with highest unemployment rates (women, the youth and the elderly). In turn, Southern regions require policies focused on enhancing labour force demand (as well as actions aimed at the surfacing of unofficial labour), and measures against unemployment, with an adequately attentive eye to active policies.
13.
Please indicate, by providing disaggregated statistical data, the extent to
which the principle of equal pay for work of equal value has been respected in
the State party.
From the
general point of view an absolute principle of equal pay is out of the
question.
The
possibility of applying this principle was introduced by the jurisprudence and
the case law that recognised the right to equal pay for work of equal value,
notwithstanding the possibility of tolerating possible inequalities when these
are justified by proven objective reasons.
However an
important joint decision of all the divisions of the Corte di Cassazione (High
Court) (no.6030 dated 25.5.1993) that analysed the whole complex case law on
the matter, states that in our judicial system it is not possible to speak of equal pay for work of equal value, thus
denying the existence of an automatic
qualifications - pay equation: the only principles that exist are minimum wage and
non-discrimination rights.
The
non-existence of a general principle of equal pay and working conditions was
further confirmed by the Corte di Cassazione (joint ruling 17.5.1996, no.4570)
whereby the contractual autonomy of the parties makes it possible, within the
minimum limits guaranteed by the constitution, to establish pay differences so
as to offer pay benefits that are not extended to all workers, to those of a
given grade or who carry out the same duties.
The only
limiting principle is that of non discrimination even though here the Corte di
Cassazione has specified that the employer is not guilty of discriminatory
behaviour when pay differences are provided for in collective contracts.
Therefore,
the pay-setting system in force in Italy ensures that workers of the same level
who carry out the same activity receive equal pay, within the context of the
same national labour contract.
Between
different labour contracts however, it may so happen that different levels of
pay be set for the same type of duties.
This is
because each category of workers (metal, textile, chemical, agricultural
workers, etc.) according to the commodity sector they belong to, has its own
national collective contract stipulated by the Trade Union Organisation that
represents that category.
The
differences in pay may further vary when labour relations are regulated by
national contracts applied to sectors with highly skilled workers or sectors
with a long history.
As well as the national level, there is also a
second level of negotiation that may permit a further pay increase based on
corporate or territorial economic growth, thus adding to the many differences.
Lastly, we
must quote the most general rule: art. 16 of the WorkersÕ Statute (law 20 May 1970, no.300),
which expressly prohibits setting discriminatory levels of pay (determined
solely by political, trade union, religious etc.. reasons).
14.
Accidents in the workplace continue to grow in the State party. According to
the State party's report, there were more than 1 million accidents in 2000,
representing and increase of 6 per
cent over the previous year. There has also been a rise in job-related
illnesses of 4.3 per cent between 1999 and 2000. Please explain the reason for
this increase.
In the
first place we must point out that the assessment of data on accidents must
take into account the various indices used for data collation, which make the
phenomenon of accident trends more complex. In general, in the reference
period, we noted a considerable increase in employment levels in various
sectors as well as a new and more complete definition of the categories of insured
workers.
As for the
average trend of accidents during the 1999/2003 period, in the years 1999/2000
we witnessed, in absolute values, a slow increase in accidents, which had begun in the Ô90s already and continued until
2001. This increase was suddenly interrupted by the excellent results achieved
in 2002 (-3.5) and a further 1.8% drop in 2003.
In relative
terms, that is if
we compare the number of industrial accidents with the labour force figures,
the positive evolution of this phenomenon becomes even more apparent, since the
overall drop in accidents is brought out even more by the parallel increase in
active population figures.
The
relative incidence index that began to decrease in the year 2000 and continued
to drop until 2002 (-4.9%) recorded a further 2.8% drop in 2003 and lays the
foundations for a similar trend to continue in future years.
An
analysis of the absolute data must be interpreted in the light of the increase
in the data on recordable accidents, and following the economic recovery, of the
revision of risk factors, both in the tertiary sector and in agriculture.
Furthermore
in the year 2000, the D.N.A. (reporting of names of insured workers), made it
possible, with the use of ISTAT
data, to create a computerised system so that data relating to the active
population can be collated Òin real timeÓ.
It is
important to note that, as of the year 2000, following the immigrant worker
registration pardon, the number of cases of reported accidents for those
workers increased.
It is
also necessary to stress that by virtue of the entry into force of legislative
decree no. 38/2000, INAILÕs competence has been extended to cover also sub-contract workers,
managers and professional sportspeople, as well as housewives by virtue of law
493/99.
An analysis of all these data for the year 2000
shows that the accident phenomenon has been following a downward trend,
especially considering also the following factors, which are decisive when
assessing accident figures:
á
economic
recovery as of the year 2000;
á
increase
in the number of non-EU workers;
á
inclusion
in the insured population of sub-contract workers, whose accident rate is
notoriously higher than that of directly recruited workers;
It must be
stressed that the drop in the number of accidents is aided also by an organised
effort to increase knowledge and awareness of accident risks and prevention
measures achieved also thanks to funds granted to enterprises that invest in
adapting to the work place safety measures and funds made available for
training courses on prevention issues.
In contrast
with the above-mentioned data however, we must indicate an increase in
accidents among immigrants, where the average accident rate is above that of
Italian workers.
The reasons
for this (Italy is the third country in Europe for number of immigrants), are
the different professional culture of these workers and the fact that they are
often given jobs that are more dangerous, linked to seasonal mobility and in
small enterprises.
As for
occupational diseases, in order to give a correct interpretation to
multi-annual trends, it is necessary to take into account the overall framework
of the phenomenon in the other advanced economy States , which offers
indications that are partly contradictory. The fact that in Europe the number
of reported occupational diseases is progressively decreasing and following an
almost uniform trend could be shelved as a positive and reassuring element:
however a more careful analysis indicates that the drop in numbers is in part
an obvious symptom of the growing gap between the real phenomenon and its image
depicted by the available statistical data, as well as being a sign of
technical and cultural difficulty in linking symptoms with work activities. If
we take only the five-year period between 1998 and 2002, the number of reports
made to INAIL each year is basically stable, around 26thousand, with a
progressive drop in listed diseases and a corresponding increase in non-listed
ones. The reason lies partly in an increased awareness of worker health, in
particular greater knowledge of pathologies indicated as being Òwork-relatedÓ.
INAIL summary tables have been annexed.
15. The
definition of essential services with regard to which the right to strike is
restricted appears to be too broad, covering not only health and security, but
also education, social assistance, insurance and communication. Please indicate
how these restriction have been applied lately and whether the State party
intends to reduce these restrictions.
The issue
of strikes in essential public services is regulated systematically by law
146/90, modified by law 83/2000 (law 12 June 1990 no.146 Ð Provisions governing the right
to strike in essential public services and safeguarding constitutionally
guaranteed human rights Ð Setting up of the Guarantee Commission for the implementation of the
law), whose
objective is expressly to regulate the right to strike in essential public
services while safeguarding the personal rights that are protected by the
constitution, to life, health, freedom and safety, free movement, social
assistance and welfare, education and freedom of communication.
As far as
the implementation of the law is concerned, it is indispensable to stress the
institutional role of the Guarantee Commission, which is increasing constantly
and progressively and which has intervention powers by virtue of a provisional
regulation of a binding nature in cases of lack of collective rules or when
these are deemed not appropriate.
During the
activity of the Commission, since the year 2000, action aimed at guaranteeing
the implementation of strike containment measures continued with the objective
of avoiding cases of social conflict:
á Cooling and conciliation
procedures: compulsory
for both parties before the first strike call and laid down in collective
agreements (covering essential services), at the Ministry of Labour for
conflicts of national scope (here the trend is constant, 300 a year from 2001
to 2003) or in the Prefectures or Local Administrations for conflicts of a
local scope.
In this
respect the present Prime Minister has delegated to the Ministry for Labour and
Social Policies the duty to order resumption of work in the case of collective
abstention from work at national level on the part of workers belonging to
public bodies covered by this legislation. However, by way of information,
during this government no such cases of intervention have been necessary.
á Agreements or collective
contracts between public Administrations (or private enterprises that are in charge of
collective services) and trade union associations. From 2001 to 2003, 20
agreements that concern all sectors were stipulated at national level.
Here we
must point out that recently even, on 7 April 2004, the Guarantee Commission
sent a note to all concerned Trade Union Organisations of workers and employers
inviting the parties to get into touch directly with each other to look into
the possibility of stipulating, in lieu of provisional regulations, the
contracts and agreements laid down by the legislators, which would then be
submitted to the same Commission for approval.
The same
invitation was issued for possible revisions of contracts or agreements already
approved by the Commission.
At the
moment, despite the broad ongoing debate, there is no legislative activity
aiming at modifying the present legal situation under way.
16.
While the overall population is projected to decrease by 20 per cent between
1996 and 2050, the number of elderly persons dependent on social security is
expected to increase dramatically in the coming decades. Please indicate what
measures are being taken to deal with these demographic changes.
Particular
attention has been dedicated to the theme of not self-sufficiency.
The
process of ageing of the population indicates that in 2001 the class over 80
years old concentrates the 2,17% of the whole male population and 5,4% of the
female one.
The
loss of functional autonomy among the 65 years old people concerns almost one
elder in five: the disability rate is equal to 193,3 by a thousand and among eighty-years old people
reaches 476,7 by
a thousand.
The
women have a longer average life, but they suffer any way for a longer time of
limitations in the activities: a 65 years old woman can expect to live on
average 20 years, but she will live at least 5 of these years in disability
conditions, with poor or null self-sufficiency; a 65 years old men, instead,
can expect to live 16 years, but probably he will live two years with the
presence of some disability. However, the simple longevity of the women cannot
explain the female disadvantage, as it substantially emerges in all compared
ages. The gender differences are highlighted after 55 years of age, and
particularly after 70 years (among people 70-74 years old the disability rate
for the women is equal to 131,9 by a thousand and for the men is equal to 97,8
by a thousand), up to reach the greatest difference among people over 80 years
old (among people over 80 years old the rate disability is equal to 520,2 by a
thousand for the women and 386,6 for the men).
In order to guarantee a better social and
welfare protection, a series of services, with different distribution, is
provided for the frail elders, also on the basis of the typology of the request.
In the
Italian welfare system, it's possible to identify three different typologies of
services:
á
services to the person: these services are
traditional ones, whose distribution is decided by local authorities and their
operators. If a person is entitled to receive social services, the local
authority decides the services which have to be provided, the procedures and
the distributor.
Such services are provided by the municipalities and ASL, or (as it usually happens)
through agreements with private suppliers.
á
voucher (service-ticket): the vouchers are provided
by local authorities and they attribute rights for specific services. The
beneficiary can use them in order to ÒbuyÓ such services from a distributor
(public or private), authorized by the local authority.
The
coupon is assigned to the user in order to buy services from the chosen
distributor among these ones authorized. A mechanism of Òalmost-marketÓ, where different
distributors compete in order to attract the user in the context of a (partial)
system of public financing, is established The users can make the choice of
purchase autonomously or with the cooperation of public operators who offer
necessay information and advice.
á
the care cheques: it' s an economic contribution
provided for the elders (or for their relatives), in order to finance the
assistance. Such contribution is supplied by the municipalities or by the ASL,
in alternative to domiciliary or residential services to the person. This
contribution is given to ÒcaregiverÓ or used in order to buy private
assistance.
The real
target of the care cheques is represented by the elders in economic conditions
of difficulty and with a probable situation of dependence which, without the
grant of the monetary contribution, would force the elders to entry a
residential structure. The high charitable need
of people who receive the cheque explains the presence of a third criterion for
its grant. The capacities of the relatives and/or
of the other caregiver (to
whom at least partially the cheque is endorsed) are evaluated, in order to verify their concrete possibilities to assist the elder. Since the intervention is done
in cases of very needy elders and familiar nets exposed to strong pressure, the
evaluation on the effects of the grant of the cheque,
which allows to assist the elder at home in
congruous way, becomes very important.
The
addressees of the cheque are very often the elder's relatives: usually people already strongly engaged in the
assistance of the elder, also before receiving the
economic contribution. Its grant constitutes an
incentive to the care
engagement and support the economic costs of not self-sufficiency. The reflection on the cheque and its consequences
for the informal nets must start from this point and from the great satisfaction
which it picks up between elders and caregiver. The
cheque allows, in fact, to assist the elder domiciliary, according his/her wish
and that one of the family. Furthermore, the economic contribution can be used
with extreme flexibility and freedom, characteristics very appreciated by the
caregivers.
Such
tools are included in the national system of social services to the person, branched in all the areas
as indicated by the law 328/2000, destining financial resources through the cooperation among the various institutional levels,
State, regions and municipalities.
The
supplemented interventions and services net constitute the structure for the necessary services, also for the individualised assistance to not
self-sufficient people.
In
Italy, the social expense is jointly supported by the central State, by the
Regions and by over 8000 councils
The
total social expense is approximately equal to 3,5-3,7% of the PIL. The
National Social Fund was progressively increased up to 1 billion euro, to
divide in indistinct form among the Regions. The
financial Law 2004, provides to assign the 10% of such fund to the families
with in charge a not self-sufficient or a disabled elder.
Furthermore, the current reform of headline V of the
Constitution assigns important powers to the regions in the grant of the
expense and the welfare services. In this way, a wide territorial differentiation results established.
In order to fill the gap, the definition of basic service levels is in an advanced formulation
phase.
The
document, which represents the base for the preparation
of such normative provision, has been submitted to the evaluation of the ÒstakeholdersÓ, and it will be discussed with the Regions in the competent places..
The
Law N. 18/2001 establishes that the basic levels of the civil and social
services must be guaranteed in all the national territory . It is an obligation
of the State towards all citizens, with constitutional protection, and with
bond for all the institutional system, in order to guarantee and realize the
collectability of these rights.
On the basis of current provisions, the role, which the
municipalities undertake in the associated management of social services, can
represent a new way to create a first phase of social sanitary integration,
also in the context of co-operation with the ASL.
In some Italian areas, management organisation projects of welfare
services have already started to be applied. A first form of territorial
experimentation has started in this view:
q
a single entity provided with legal status (sanitary and local
authorities have to participate to its formation, at least in the first phase);
this entity undertakes the local managerial responsibility of the sanitary and
social-charitable assistance of vulnerable subjects;
q
the attribution to the above-mentioned subject of the dispersed
financial and economic resources dedicated to this aim;
q
the standardisation of needs evaluation, of the classification of the
lack of self-sufficiency and corresponding typologies of offered services;
q
a functional scheme of the welfare pattern, with the involvement of all
institutional actors of the social-charitable and sanitary sector, founded on
an operating central active all 24 hours, dedicated to the collection and the
evaluation of this matter.
This is the case of Lombardy region, where a convention has been
stipulated between the Ministry of Welfare, Ministry of Health, the involved
ASL and the municipalities, aiming at defining a integrated evaluation of needs
of not self-sufficient elders and identify an appropriate answer.
Furthermore, in order to oppose the Òemergency
of heatingÓ (which last year has caused several victims among
elderly people, especially in big urban areas where often elders live alone), further experimentation is to be
launched in four Italian areas
through the institution of the figure of the social keeper.
The
social keeper will get in touch with the elders, who express particular social
and sanitary needs, making the solution easier.
The
experimentation will last two years and will involve 90 social keepers.
17.
Please indicate what social protection measures have been adopted to enable
workers in the informal labour market to provide an adequate standard of living
to themselves and their families.
The
following laws were adopted to reinforce policies in support of families:
- Law n. 133 of 10 June 2003 arranged some relevant measures to help families with a low income and with at least three children in charge.
- Communication
campaign: 1.000 euros for the second child
Art. 21 of Law Decree n. 269 of 30
September 2003 (converted in Law n. 326 of 24 November 2003, published in
Official Bulletin n. 274 of 25 November 2003) provides for a cheque of 1.000
euros granted for every child born within 1st December 2003 and 31st
December 2004, as second one or by order of birth. The same cheque is granted
for every child adopted in the same period.
In case of
twin or multiple birth, the cheque is granted for every child as second one or
by order of birth.
In order to obtain this
cheque the mother must:
á be Italian or European citizen;
á be resident in Italy at the time of
the childbirth or of the adoption.
When the
new born baby or the adopted child is registered, the Council where the mother
resides takes charge of verifying the possession of the above mentioned
requirements and of transmitting the necessary information to INPS Ð Istituto Nazionale di Previdenza
Sociale (National Institute of Social Security) in order to grant the cheque.
The Ministry of Employment and Social
Policy has assigned 161
millions euros to Regions and Autonomous Provinces in favour of families for
the purchase of the first house and for the support to the birth rate.
With 2003
Financial Law 10 million euros for the creation of day nurseries and
micro-nurseries at work were allocated through a proper rotation fund, while
other 100 millions euros will be moved from the Fund for day nurseries
instituted by 2002 Financial Law (Law n. 448/01) to the Regions in order to
assigned this sum to Councils.
These funds
will be directly asked from single interested enterprises to the Ministry, as
soon as the decrees will be approved.
In the
agreement approved in the Unified Conference on April 17th 2004 minimum standards were defined for the
arrangement of micro-nurseries to be created at work in order to receive and
take care of employeesÕ children.
On January 27th 2004 the new National
Observatory on the Family was furthermore constituted, in which there are 25
representative Councils of all the Italian Regions, and with the Council of
Bologna as leader. With the official settlement of this Observatory the
International Year of the family was celebrated in Italy.
18.
Please indicate on what grounds divorce is permitted in the State party.
The discipline of the cases of dissolution of
the marriage is contained in Law n. 898 of 1st December 1970,
subsequently modified by Law n. 74 of 6 March 1987, which has introduced the
institute of the divorce.
Art. 1 of the above-mentioned Law provides that
ÒThe judge pronounces the dissolution
of the marriage married according
to the Civil Code, when, carried out the attempt of settlement without success
[see Art. 4], he verifies that the spiritual and material communion between the
consorts cannot be kept or reconstituted for the existence of the causes
provided in Art. 3Ó.
Art. 3 lists the causes of dissolution of the
civil marriage.
The most frequent one is to be identified in the
same Art. 3 n. 2 b), that is when Òthe judicial separation between consorts has
been pronounced with final judgement, or the consensual separation has been
approved or a separation de facto has been occurred when the separation itself
has started at least two years before December 18th, 1970Ó. In all these cases, for the
divorce request, the separation must have last at least three year from the
appearance of the consorts before the President of the Court in the procedure
of personal separation also when the judgement has become consensual.
Many of the other causes of divorce are based
on the result of criminal trials against one of the two consorts.
In relation with the above-mentioned Art. 3,
other causes of divorce are: the sentence against one of the two consorts to
life imprisonment or a prison punishment higher than fifteen years for not
voluntary crimes (n. 1 a); the sentence to any prison punishment for voluntary
homicide of own child, for homicide attempt to own child or consort, for incest
or crimes of sexual abuse (n. 1 b, c); the acquittal for total mind defect for
the commission of one of the above said crimes, when the competent judge for
the divorce verifies that the defendant cannot keep or reconstitute family
cohabitation (n. 2 a); the final sentence that establishes to not proceed for
crime extinction in criminal proceedings against the consort for the same
crimes, when the judge charged to pronounce the dissolution of the marriage
considers that in these acts there are constitutive elements and conditions to
punish the crimes themselves (n. 2 c); the sentence of release or acquittal
which declares the fact not punishable for lack of public scandal in criminal
proceedings for incest against one of the consorts (n. 2 d); the sentence of prison
punishment for serious personal injuries, for violation of the duty of familiar
assistance (Art. 570 of Criminal Code), for ill-treatments in the family (Art.
572 of Criminal Code), or for circumvention of unable person (Art. 643 of
Criminal Code), committed in damage of the other consort or of own child.
The divorce can be also asked in cases of not
consummated marriage, when there is a final judgement for the rectifying sex
attribution, when the other consort, as foreign citizen, has obtained the annulment
or the dissolution of the marriage abroad or has newly got married abroad.
19.
Please indicate whether all forms of discrimination against children born out
of wedlock have been removed.
In the Italian legal system all the rules which
have create substantial treatment disparities among legitimate children and
natural children were abrogated (in particular with 1975 reform of the right of
family).
So it can be affirmed that at present there is
a complete equivalence between the familiar status of the natural child
recognised and that one of the legitimate child as regards both the claims
towards the parents and children succession rights.
20.
Please indicate the extent of family violence in the State party and the
measures adopted to combat this phenomenon.
The great attention of Italy about this
phenomenon is proved by the adoption of Law n. 154 of 4 April 2001 (published
in Official Bulletin n. 98 of 28 April 2001) providing ÒMeasures against violence in family
relationsÓ, which reveals
in the title itself the intent of the legislator to introduce new legal
instruments to fight this phenomenon in the Italian legal system.
Law n. 154/2001 contains new relevant elements
and offers to victims of violence in family life a "double track"
protection both in civil and criminal aspects, fully achieved also thanks to
the modification of Art. 342 of the Civil Code (ÒOrder of protection against family
abusesÓ), introduced
with Law n. 154/2001 and recently realised with Law n. 304 of 6 November 2003,
which makes operative the new remedy provided in the civil field also whereas
the acts constitute a crime that can be judged by defense (removing the
exclusion provided in previous Art. 342 of the Civil Code).
In particular, Law n. 154/2001 has introduced a
new personal precautionary measure (Art. 282 bis) in the Criminal Procedure
Code, Òseparation from
family houseÓ, that can be
disposed if there are general conditions provided for personal precautionary
measures, but that, whereas it concerns crimes in family life (Articles 570,
571, 600 bis, 600 ter, 600 quater, 609 bis, 609 ter, 609 quater, 609 quinquies,
609 octies of Criminal Code, committed in damage of relatives or of the
cohabitant), is applicable also beyond the punishment limits provided by Art.
280 of Criminal Procedure Code.
In the enforced ordinance of the
above-mentioned measure the judge orders the addressee to leave family house
immediately, that is to not return, and to not access without his
authorisation.
Accessory provisions, which do not have effect
when the main provision is not in force too, consist in the prohibition ordered
by the judge towards the investigated person, if there are exigencies of
protection for the safety of the offended person or his/her relatives, in the
prohibition to go to places
habitually frequented by the person offended, in particular at work, the
domicile of the family of origin or of his/her relatives, unless itÕs necessary for work reasons (Art.
282 bis c), and also the injunction of periodic payment of a cheque in favour
of the cohabitants who, for effect of the disposed precautionary measure,
remain without adequate
means.
A more innovative measure is the introduction of a new Title (IX
bis) ÒOrder of
protection against family abusesÓ in the Civil Code, that offers to victims of
family violence (not only the consort or the cohabitant, but also the other
members, according to Art. 5 of Law 154/2001) a new instrument of protection,
because it introduces a new kind of action that has, as its premise, a
situation of Òserious prejudice to physical or moral integrity, that is to freedomÓ.
In this case the judge will be able to issue a
decree, necessarily temporary, with a fixed term of six months and which can be
postponed only for serious reasons, by which he orders the author of the
violence to stop the prejudicial behaviour and the separation from family
house, also whereas he/she is the owner of the building.
The judge will furthermore be able, where
necessary and in parallel with criminal measures, to order the addressee of the
provision to not go to places habitually frequented by the victim, Òand in particular at work, the
domicile of the family of origin or of his/her relatives or of other persons,
and near the school of his/her children, unless itÕs necessary for work reasonsÓ.
Also in the civil field the judge will be able
to order the author of the violence to pay periodically a cheque in favour of
the cohabitants who, for effect of protection order execution, remain without
adequate economic means.
Furthermore the judge will be able to dispose,
when necessary, the intervention of local social services or of centres of
family mediation, and associations which have as statutory purpose the support
and the reception of women and minors or other subjects victims of abuses and
ill-treatment.
The violation of the prescriptions provided in
the protection order is criminally sanctioned according to Art. 388 of Criminal
Code, as expressly disposed in Art.
6 of Law n. 154/2001.
At the same time it must be highlighted the
recent modification of Articles 330, 333 and 336 of Civil Code with Law n. 149
of 23 March (Art. 37): it allows to MinorsÕ Court, in case of loss or
limitation of parentsÕ power, to provide also for Òthe separation of the parent or cohabitant who
ill-treats or abuses the minorÓ. ItÕs a mean of
protection in favour of youngsters and that must be harmonised with the most
general legislation introduced by Law n. 154.
Complaints,
denounced crimes for which the Judicial Authority has begun criminal
proceedings and persons denounced according to the kind of crime
|
|
|
Complaints |
|
Denounced crimes |
|
Denounced persons |
|
|
|
for one crime |
for several crimes |
total |
total |
of which: of unknown author |
total |
of which: less than years 18 |
|
|
|
|
|
YEAR 1998 |
|
|
|
|
Violation
of the duties of family assistance |
3.585 |
95 |
3.680 |
4.631 |
45 |
3.699 |
1 |
|
Abuse
in family or towards children |
1.208 |
1.164 |
2.372 |
2.829 |
149 |
2.493 |
45 |
|
Abuse
of means of correction and discipline |
70 |
2 |
72 |
95 |
21 |
58 |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
YEAR 1999 |
|
|
|
|
Violation
of the duties of family assistance |
3.728 |
110 |
3.838 |
4.877 |
79 |
3.807 |
3 |
|
Abuse
in family or towards children |
1.253 |
1.292 |
2.545 |
3.3 |
175 |
2.619 |
36 |
|
Abuse
of means of correction and discipline |
91 |
- |
91 |
124 |
44 |
56 |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
YEAR 2000 |
|
|
|
|
Violation
of the duties of family assistance |
3.725 |
83 |
3.808 |
4.868 |
462 |
3.389 |
- |
|
Abuse
in family or towards children |
1.236 |
1.150 |
2.386 |
2.814 |
275 |
2.315 |
21 |
|
Abuse
of means of correction and discipline |
77 |
- |
77 |
101 |
37 |
44 |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
YEAR 2001 |
|
|
|
|
Violation
of the duties of family assistance |
5.544 |
128 |
5.672 |
7.252 |
58 |
5.696 |
- |
|
Abuse
in family or towards children |
1.621 |
1.929 |
3.550 |
4.167 |
185 |
3.717 |
37 |
|
Abuse
of means of correction and discipline |
103 |
3 |
106 |
152 |
27 |
85 |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
YEAR 2002 |
|
|
|
|
Violation
of the duties of family assistance |
5.720 |
396 |
6.116 |
7.462 |
52 |
6.167 |
- |
|
Abuse
in family or towards children |
1.616 |
2.321 |
3.937 |
4.669 |
202 |
4.112 |
40 |
|
Abuse
of means of correction and discipline |
107 |
9 |
116 |
173 |
25 |
101 |
- |
Source of
the data: ISTAT
21.
Please provide information on whether trafficking in persons has been
criminalized in the State party. Please also indicate the extent of the
problems of prostitution, trafficking in women and children and child
prostitution as well as of the problem of child pornography in the State party.
Implementing the
recommendations contained in the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women And Children, signed at the
Palermo Conference of 10 December 2000, the recent Law n.228 of 11 August 2003
describes more specifically and precisely the crime of reducing a person to or
keeping them in a state of enslavement or servitude and the crime of
trafficking. More specifically, Law 228 re-formulates Art. 601 of the criminal
code, by defining more precisely the offence of Òtrafficking of peopleÓ and at
the same time increasing the minimum penalty from 5 to 8 years of imprisonment
and introducing, together with a special assistance programme for the victims
of the crimes envisaged by Articles 600 and 601 of the criminal code (reducing
to or maintaining in a state of slavery or servitude and trafficking of human
beings), specific preventive actions that can be financed from a special fund
for measures to combat trafficking.
The recent Law n. 228 of 11 August 2003, ÒMeasures against trafficking of
peopleÓ, which has
redefined, modifying Articles 600 and 601 of Criminal Code, the criminal cases
of Òreduction in
slaveryÓ and of Òtrafficking of peopleÓ, specifying the behaviours to be
punished and also sanctioning the maintenance in slavery of the individual.
The same section of Criminal Code, concerning
the crimes against the individual personality, has been also modified by Law n.
269 of 3 August 1998 (ÒRules against the exploitation of prostitution, pornography, sexual
tourism in damage of minors as new forms of reduction in slaveryÓ), which had introduced new criminal instances (Òjuvenile prostitutionÓ, Òjuvenile pornographyÓ, Òdetention of pornographic materialÓ, Òtourism initiatives against the
exploitation of the juvenile prostitutionÓ Ð Articles from 600 bis to 600
septies) with the intent to oppose the raising phenomenon of prostitution and
pornography in damage of minors.
Such legal instrument was inspired from and has
implemented the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
ratified with Law n. 176 of 27 May 1991, and the contents of the Final
Declaration of Stockholm World Conference, adopted on August 31st 1996.
Art. 1 of Law n. 269/1998 explicitly affirms
that children protection against every form of exploitation and sexual abuse to
safeguard their physical, psychological, spiritual, moral and social
development, constitutes a primary aim pursued by Italy.
22.
Please indicate under what conditions asylum-seekers are entitled to family
reunification.
Asylum
seekers, unlike refugees, cannot exercise the right to family reunification,
because their stay in the State has temporary character.
Right
to an adequate standard of living (art. 11)
23.
There is a concentration of absolute poverty in southern Italy reaching the
level of 11 per cent of the population as against 1.4 per cent in the north and
2.6 per cent in the centre of the country. Please explain what policies and
measures have been adopted to deal with this situation.
Italy has envisaged some measures, particularly
the creation of a National Fund for Social Policies, in order to mainly support
numerous family, especially from the Southern part of Italy.
Italy would
like to mention and briefly outline two of the most recent and effective
measures, which have been adopted to support regions:
Provisions
on Equalisation, Rationalisation and Fiscal federalism is a Law adopted in 1999
(L. 133/1999). Its article 1 lays down structural interventions for
equalisation of taxation, in order to respond to the needs of the Italian
families. In practical terms, the Italian legal framework aimed at financing
regions to respond to general needs.
The
Ministerial decree 470/2001 contains criteria and rules on: 1) how to provide
financial support to regions, and 2) how to grant resources for ad hoc
initiatives for disadvantaged persons, including persons with severe
disabilities and serious economic difficulties. In this regard, it is worth
recalling that the Italian regions, on the basis of an in-depth exchange of
views with the Government, have been required to elaborate the legal framework
to implement, at the local level, the decree under reference. As local
administrators, they will have to decide how to finance no-profit bodies
directly involved in activities, such as regional structures, for economically
disadvantaged persons without any familyÕs support and severe
disabilities.
24.
Please indicate the impact of the first National Action Plan on Social
Inclusion (2001-2003) and the priorities set for the second National Action
Plan on Social Inclusion (2003-2005) to improve the standard of living of
vulnerable and marginalized groups.
The key problem is the activation of policies
of integration by the regional and local governments, both in general terms and
as regards specific sectors (housing, health care, schools, the family,
multicultural affairs, non-profit associations), starting with a reorientation
of the services. In order to improve entry in the workforce, the systems for
brining together labour supply and demand must be reinforced. At present they are
still tied to informal approaches that prevent workers from breaking free of
unskilled professional positions that clash with their training credentials.
Despite the extremely low percentage of non-EU immigrants lacking education
(9.3%), it has been found that the training credentials of foreigners are
virtually useless on the labour market, which offers jobs that generally fall
far below the level of skills exercised in the country of origin. Urgent
action should be taken to establish not only effective selection services, but
also services of orientation and ongoing training, in order to take advantage
of the immigrantsÕ overlooked skills. This confirms both the need to increase the
effectiveness of the system for the planning of annual flows, as well as the
need for more timely approval of the individual planning decrees. At the same
time, mechanisms should be activated to simply hiring procedures, whose
complexity creates a situation in which employers and the institutions of the
main contacts are ill prepared t meet the needs of the foreigners.
There is now widespread acknowledgment that
immigration, for both structural reasons and its characteristics of increasing
stability, is necessary to the countryÕs economic development, though there is less
agreement regarding the conviction that immigration provides a measures of a
societyÕs values of
civility and solidarity. While an effort should definitely be made to reassure
public opinion that more rigorous action will be taken in the planning of flows and in
measures contrasting illicit immigration, it is also necessary to spread the
conviction that the key to reducing social tensions is the selection of
suitable policies of immigration. The question is not deciding whether or not
to accept immigrants, but finding a way to accept them as new citizens while
ensuring conditions of civil, ordered coexistence.
The Consolidated Legislative text of 1998 on
immigration presents two points of strength: granting of equal civil and social
rights to immigrants, plus the promotion of policies of integration by local government bodies.
Immigration can become a tremendous opportunity, if there is development of a
model of integration that functions as an ongoing process of exchange and
reciprocal cultural contamination, in accordance with the principles of our
Constitution. On the subject of integration policies, the Consolidated Text
calls for decisive progress, with practices of mere solidarity being left
behind for an all-encompassing policy centred around the territory. It is
difficult to convert initiatives favouring integration into an Òorganic policyÓ, which entails addressing all the
problems of legally resident foreigners and treating them on a par with the
concerns of native born citizens within both general policies and policies
regarding specific sectors: housing, health care, the right to education,
training and entry in the labour market, plus socio-economic assistance. An
organic policy, in addition to being based on services that systematically
observe immigration throughout the territory, requires regional, provincial and
municipal planning, on both an annual and multiyear basis, as well as focussed
initiatives that must be monitored over time; it also calls for fruitful
utilisation of the contributions of non-profit associations, made in a manner
that is not self-referential but develops itself within a framework of planning
and in accordance with the principal of subsidiarity. Focussed initiatives are
those regarding the system of information and communications, the facilitation
of access to public services and the private social sphere (from the training
of operators to the use of cultural mediators, as well as the integration of
service windows and the simplification of administrative procedures) and promotion
of the knowledge of different cultures. Backing these initiatives are the
resources of the National Immigration Fund, which has now been transferred,
without the former constraints on its end uses, into the regional funds for
social, policies. Without this transformation from initiatives of solidarity to
a full-fledged policy of integration, public and private action will remain
fragmented, moving no farther than plans for emergencies and assistance, all
within a charity-based outlook that does not correspond to the real data on
immigration, which point to continuous growth, especially in the central-north regions, employment
placement, the establishment of families and general stabilisation. The local
efforts that make the most progress within an organic policy of social
integration are those which are founded on agreement as to the shared
objectives of concerted social action social (social pacts and permanent
roundtable) and which draw on the programming and planning of
inter-institutional collaboration in order to carry out activities that
complement each other. Another precondition for effectiveness is the
participation of foreign citizens. By their very nature, policies of
integration, even when the implementation of legislation is involved, cannot be
planned unilaterally. With the exception of a few admirable cases, too little
has been done to promote and support the non-profit associations of foreigners,
making available facilities, funding, technical assistance and partnership
arrangements with pubic institutions. In recent years, foreign citizens have been represented primarily by
non-profit associations defending their rights, with services being offered at
the initiative of local government bodies. Here too significant progress must
be made: this means highly participatory planning, with greater clarity over
the roles held in the management of initiatives by public institutions, the
private sector, the social private sphere and volunteer organisations, as well
as, and not with secondary status, the associations of the foreign citizens
themselves.
For the purposes of representation and
participation, the completed founding of territorial councils for immigration
in all the provinces offers a very important resource. The make-up and tasks of
these councils, as stipulated under the Consolidated Text, make them the territorial forum for participation
in the planning of policies on the part of all the institutional and social
partners, as well as concerted
inter-institutional and social efforts, the planning of reliable initiatives
regarding the handling of immigrants, when the efforts in question meet the
objective of maintaining cultural identity, together with the inter-cultural
process, and when they serve as the precondition to real access to administrative
and social services, such as schooling and health care. The territorial
councils on immigration are key institutions, but there is the risk that they
will turn out to be a squandered opportunity if, presided over by the Prefects,
they fail to gain recognition from local governments and institutions as for
forum for participation in and integration of the planning of the policies for
which they are responsible.
The regional legislation adjusting the
Consolidated Text, which has been significantly delayed in all the regions,
should clarify these procedures of planning and participation. The policy of
integration constructed in local territories is the response to the complexity
of social cohesion and ordered civil coexistence in the midst of the problematic
impact with immigration.
In March of 2004, the National Organisation
for the Coordination of Local Policies for the Social Integration of
Foreigners, operating under the auspices of the CNEL, in accordance with Law
no. 40/98, expressed itself on the formulation of the Three-Year Planning
Document for 2004-2006 on Policy regarding Immigration and Foreigners in Italy,
supplying the opinion called for under the provisions of art. 3, paragraph 1, of Legislative Decree no. 286/98.
The CNEL specifically urges the Government and Parliament:
- to formulate the three-year planning document
for 2004-2006 forthwith ;
- to issue as soon as possible, following what
have been serious delays, the regulations of implementation for Law no.
189/2002, so as to move beyond the precarious approach characterised by
provisional decrees on annual and seasonal flows of immigration;
- to undertake a search, on the part of all
the political forces, for joint positions, at least with regard to the
fundamental guidelines, given that immigration is an unavoidable and decisive
issue for the development of the country, and that its governance calls for
ordered, civil coexistence;
- to optimise the contributions of the
social forces, non-profit associations and groups of Italian and immigrant
volunteers initiatives regarding reception and initial shelter, the
safeguarding if rights, integration and the promotion of the related
territorial policies of local government bodies. An initial result should be
the reactivation of the advisory commission to the Prime MinisterÕs Office, as stipulated under the
law. The Department of Immigration Planning should be inspired by an awareness
that immigration is changing our society, giving rise to the challenge of
working together to construct a just and cohesive coexistence consisting of
dialogue, exchanges, respect for different cultures and the initial steps
towards joint recognition of the fundamental values of the individual and the
democratic system.
The CNEL agrees with what is being stated in
the cultural and political debate underway in the country: namely that
immigration is not an emergency,
but rather a major cultural question, and not simply in terms f economics, and that, if it is to be governed, a
decisive role shall be played by policies of welcome and shelter, social
insertion and integration, for all of which the preconditions must be
established in the countries of origin. This does not mean that policies of
security should be neglected, but that there should simply be an awareness that
the fight against clandestine immigration cannot be won solely with a
repressive policy, in the absence of an
efficient regulation of entry and a clear and certain procedure for
obtaining legal citizenship. Policies for integration and the planned
regulation of legal flows are issues on which national must be reformulated in
a more balanced fashion. To lend credibility to this reformulation, the CNEL
asks the Government and Parliament for an explicit commitment to:
- reinforce the international legal
framework in defence of migrants, ratifying and arranging for ratification by
the European Union of the UN convention of December 1990 on the rights of
immigrants and their family (a measure that went into effect in July of 2003
without the signature of any of the countries with major immigration flows), as
well as the UN convention against international crime, plus the protocol on the
prevention and repression of the trafficking of human beings and the protocol against the trafficking of
immigrants, which has been in force since September;
- to take decisive action to ensure that the
European Constitution contemplates European citizenship for immigrant citizens
who are long-term residents, as requested by the European Economic and Social
Committee (under the current proposal citizenship is granted only tot hose who
are already citizens of a member nation);
- the promotion of an open method for the
coordination of European Community policy on immigration, as contemplated under
the program of the EU Commission, involving the coordination of national
policies, the exchange of practices, an evaluation of the impact of Community
policy, all based on the multiyear orientation of the Union, with short, medium and long-term objectives to be
transposed into the national plans;
- further development of the practice of
bilateral accords with countries of origin and transit willing to collaborate
against organised crime and clandestine immigration, and to work towards the
readmission and re-entry of immigrants; this approach is generating positive
results and it should be pursued with greater determination in the area of
development cooperation, and not only through compensation in the form of
reserved quotas, all within a context of EU initiatives to be promoted in
favour of non-EU countries;
- rapid drafting of national legislation that
both gives immigrants the right to vote in local elections and allows them to
obtain Italian citizenship, complete with specification of the time deadlines,
plus simplified, transparent procedures and recognition of the principle of ius
loci, as takes place in the other nations of the Union;
- approval of the all-encompassing law on the right of asylum, which is currently governed under an approach geared towards fighting clandestine immigration and safeguarding security.
A step in the right direction, in large part
on account of the efficient procedures of implementation and the responsibility
placed directly on employers, was the regularisation campaign currently being
completed, an effort that removed from the sector of submerged, illicit labour
approximately 700 thousand immigrants from among salaried employees and
domestic helpers. But renewed national legislation must also
remove the legislative and functional causes of the difficulties tied to legal
channels of immigration, which can be traced to:
1. an essentially uncertain,
provisional approach, if not outright, de facto delays, in the annual planning
of entry quotas; the planned approach, which is also followed by the other
European countries on the Mediterranean, whose experience with immigration is
more recent, and will be reinforced through its extension to the EU, should be
confirmed and combined with innovative initiatives, such as the selective
professional quotas and the privileged quotas contemplated under the bilateral
agreements with the countries of origin and transit, and under the agreements
on education and instruction carried out in the countries of origin;
2. the failure to establish an entry
quota for those searching for work, with a guarantee of selected subjects that
would respond to the need for a direct encounter between the demand and supply,
especially with regard to small and extremely small enterprises, plus jobs
involving caring for others and domestic employment;
3. the incongruity between the
limited residual time of the residence permit granted in the event of
unemployment and the widespread lack of effectiveness, in terms of finding new
job opportunities, of employment services and active policies, which should be
the subject of an all-encompassing reform;
4. the failure to implement the
administrative measures contemplated under Law no. 189/2002, including the Òunified windowÓ at the prefectsÕ offices, plus the integration of
the informatics systems of the different administrative branches involved,
which represents the underlying condition for an efficient implementation of
the residence contract and for the simplification of all the acts required on
the part of employers, as well as the procedure under which immigrant citizens
are able to obtain and maintain legal citizenship.
These difficulties may be overcome:
- through timely annual planning of
the incoming flows, in keeping with the demand on the labour market and in
keeping with the activation of reception activities carried out with the
incisive participation of the regional governments and the social partners; the
question of immigrants entering to work as domestic helpers plays such a key social role that it should be
considered independently, within the framework of policies supporting families;
- by making modifications in
legislative measures that prove overly rigid or are inspired by an outlook that
focuses on temporary immigration, in contrast with the demands of the labour
market and with the expectations for stability of the immigrants, thus
weakening the conditions for equitable treatment, permanence and living conditions;
- administrative organisation
leading to the establishment of the unified windows; along these lines,
consideration should be given to the potential benefits of reassigning to the
population registry services of the municipal governments the task of receiving
applications and issuing renewals of residence permits and cards, in order to
eliminate the grave delays in terms of the legal deadlines.
Policies of social integration regard the
territorial dimension, but the decentralisation of responsibilities must not
lead to neglect of the development of programming guidelines under national
policy. Activities on the national level call for the identification of a
single institutional contact capable of promoting, coordinating and monitoring
the efforts. The problem of procuring resources for social policies, in light
of the difficulties of local finance, combine with the question of the
placement of the Fund for Immigration on a regional footing. The regional
governments to pass laws of adjustment regarding the national immigration
system established in 1998, as supplemented by Law 189. The promotion of
representative bodies (advisory committees, territorial councils, electric
councils, adjunct councilmen) and the participation of associations of foreign
citizens must be an explicit objective of the policies of local government
bodies, with resources structures and technical assistance being made
available.
In terms of observing immigration and
monitoring and processing statistics on a national level, there are a multitude
of structures in different sectors which are not integrated, indeed, to a large
extent they lack even uniform criteria for the measurement of fundamental factors (in particular as regards the
evaluation of indexes of integration) nor are they capable of establishing
connections with the territorial systems for the quantitative and qualitative
observation of immigration which a number of regions have in fact
established. or are
currently establishing The three-year program must render feasible the
objective of elevating the different national services to the system level
while having all the regional governments commit themselves to establishing
observatories, structured locally.
Particular attention should be focussed on
the living and working conditions of immigrant women; women account for almost
half of all immigrants, and they offer suffer a dual discrimination. The
quality of their integration, which should be favoured through reinforcement of
the social services of conciliation, is of noteworthy importance, given their
role in the family and their influence on future generations.
Specific sectors of activity, therefore, should
entail recognition ands equivalency of scholastic and academic titles, an area
where the essential vacuum of national policy should be filled.
In implementing the reform of the labour
market, it should be remembered that the promotion of professional mobility on
the part of immigrant workers also serves to redeem jobs held to be demeaning
or undesirable.
In terms of housing policies, the problems
have grown more serious, especially in the central-north zone and the
metropolitan areas, on account of the sharply increased demand for lodgings
rented at controlled rates, making them accessible to low-medium incomes, the
results of a vastly insufficient offer of public housing and private offerings
that are extremely limited, rigid and rarely available to immigrants. The
response represented by the National Fund for Subsidies for Rented Dwellings,
established under Law 431/98, has not proven equal to the situation; this
explains the commitment recently made by the Government to the ANCI to restore
resources to the 2003 level. Local government bodies have responded to these
needs, in collaboration with volunteer groups and with the non-profit sector,
giving life to initiatives and experiences, some of which represent innovative
efforts: non-profit associations, volunteer groups, foundations, cooperatives,
enterprises for set objectives, social agencies engaged exclusively in bringing
together the supply and demand for rented lodgings, guarantee and rotation
funds, employer initiatives etc., each with its own distinguishing characteristics, advantages and disadvantage
and risks and potential. But responsibility for public intervention in housing
policy rests exclusively with the regional and municipal governments, and the
central question remains procuring resources, making necessary supplementary
financing from the national government and beneficial measures designed to
mobilise private resources. The objectives to be pursued are: the elimination
of obstacles to the use of the private resources available through measures
that ensure the proper rental of the lodgings, as well as the possibility of
regaining their use when the contract expires; placement of price controls on
rentals with the contribution of Law 431, plus the activation of the housing
policies of the local government bodies, so as to create conditions under
which, in return for the granting of public funding, as well as local and
national tax subsidies and the offer of low-cost areas for new construction and
the creation of lodgings from abandoned buildings, the real estate operator
offers something in exchange, primarily in the form of reduced rent;
reformulation of the figure of the local real estate operator in innovative
terms as regards its goals and structure, with a multiplicity of know-how and
with a marked leaning towards non-profit activities. This would mean involving,
in addition to local government bodies, business enterprises, banking
foundations and credit institutions; stimulating contributions by employers through
specific tax incentives: in the event of contributions to rental fees, the
amount would be deducted from the income of the business and of the employee,
and it would not be considered as income for the purpose of calculating social
security payments; in the case of financing, provided jointly with other public
or private parties, and to be recovered under the stipulated procedures and
deadlines, for the building of residential structures, savings would be granted
in the form of tax credits.
Schooling plays a decisive role in the paths
towards integration taken by
immigrants. Educational institutes, teachers and administrators have
made praiseworthy efforts in serving the approximately 300 thousand young immigrants
entered in Italian schools, including local institutions for integrated
projects of culture and training.
The CNEL holds that a national effort should be made to address the
problems involved in training educators to teach Italian as a second language
to young people and adults, plus the need for a standardised system certifying
levels of learning, as well as the use of well trained cultural mediators for
relations between the school and the families, together with knowledge and
maintenance of ties with the language and culture of origin.
Health is the key asset of the individual, and
it is often precarious social conditions that place it in danger (illnesses
arising from malaise, work-related accidents). The relevant legislation fully
guarantees the right of access to health-care services; what regional
governments and health-care enterprises must ensure is the certainty that the
legislation is applied, in order to avoid discretionary treatment and
exclusions, as can still occur to those requesting asylum, or whose status has
been regularised, or who are momentarily unemployed, as well as irregulars who
are temporarily in residence. A number of these categories also pose problems
of national financial coverage for the regional governments and local
health-care enterprises, generating costs not accounted for by the National
Health-Care Fund. In order to guarantee access to health care while promoting
the use of the services, health-care agencies must:
- reformulate their organisational
structures: information, flexible schedules, training of personnel, network
activities regarding local needs, training and the use of cultural mediators in
areas such as gynaecology, paediatrics, psychiatry, orientation outlets and
work combining information, orientation, shelter and medical and social
assistance;
- make
trans-cultural medicine an ordinary aspect of the services offered, starting
with nursing, general medicine and paediatrics, with training procedures
involving basic instruction and professional updating, making the best possible
use of the specific professional know-how of foreign citizens through feasible
approaches to recognising their academic titles and their employment.
25.
According to paragraph 195 of the State party's report, the most serious
housing problem is the quality and regularity of the supply of drinking water.
In the light of the Committee's general Comment No. 15 (2002) on the right to
water, please indicate what effective measures have been introduced to deal
with these problems.
As regards
pollution, water epidemics caused by traditional pathogens (Salmonella,
Shigella and Vibrio) have been almost disappeared but the evaluation of
microbiological risk of other biological pathogens spreading through drinkable
water remains difficult. Furthermore Italian population is exposed, through
drinkable water, at low levels of several chemical compounds, among whom there
are the residuals of phyto-sanitary products, nitrates, products of waters
disinfection in order to make them drinkable and the transfer of materials with
which nets of collection, channelling and distribution of water to the users
were realised.
There are
problems of improvement of watersÕ composition in relation to boron parameter and
to arsenic, because in some situations, moreover limited and localised, the
presence of these substances is verified in concentrations higher than the maximum admissible ones, for
causes connected to the geological nature of the soils.
For this
purpose, the following actions will be promoted:
- reduction
of the amount of products used in agriculture and authorisation of
phyto-sanitary products that have a lower impact on environment and human
health;
- adoption
of rules for a good agriculture in order to optimize the use of fertilizers and
to minimize their environmental impact;
- the
promotion of an adequate environmental monitoring and epidemiological
investigations, with particular reference to the effects of chemical
contaminating elements on human reproductive functions;
- the
improvement of water system technologies;
- the
optimization of management and promotion of research about
supplementary/alternative disinfectants of chlorine and its compounds;
- the
increase of watersÕ protection from the processes of urban, agricultural or industrial
pollution;
- the
improvement of control over chemical, physic and biological contaminating
elements in drinkable waters and the interruption of water supply if irregular.
26.
Please explain conditions under which forced evictions have been carried out in
the State party.
The
expulsion of aliens
Chapter II of the Consolidated Act is entirely devoted to the question of border controls and the rejection and expulsion of aliens. Law 189/2002 introduced a number of important amendments concerning expulsions.
Art. 10 governs the adoption of rejection measures both at the border and immediately after the entry to Italian territory of aliens who do not meet the envisaged entry requirements. These provisions do not apply to political asylum seekers or those applying for refugee status or in cases involving the adoption of temporary protection measures for humanitarian reasons.
Art. 13 governs administrative expulsion. This is adopted by the Minister of the Interior for reasons of public order and state security (para. 1). However, in cases where the alien: has entered Italian territory by evading border controls, has not applied for the issue or renewal of his residence permit in the time envisaged or does not possess such a permit, or represents a danger to public security under the parameters defined by Law 1423/1956 and Law 575/1965, it is adopted by the Prefect.
Law 189/2002 amended para 3 of
Art. 10, by establishing that the expulsion should be envisaged Òin all cases by means of an immediately enforceable order
(with grounds), even if subject to challenge or appeal by the interested partyÓ. If the alien is subject to a criminal proceeding and is
not in a state of preventive detention in prison, before carrying out the
expulsion the Questore [officer in charge of the police force and public
order] applies for authorisation from the judicial
authority, who can refuse it only on the basis of mandatory procedural reasons.
In such cases the execution of the expulsion order is suspended until the
judicial authority provides notification that such reasons no longer apply.
Authorisation is also granted in cases where the judicial authority does not
respond within fifteen days of the application. Finally, while awaiting the
decision on the request for authorisation, the Questore may arrange for the
alien to be held at a temporary detention centre.
In cases of arrest in
flagrante delicto, it is also envisaged
that the judge should issue the authorisation at the time of confirmation,
except for those cases where preventive detention is applied, other specific
cases envisaged by the criminal code, or in cases where one of the reasons for
which the authorisation cannot be granted under the terms of para 3 applies.
These provisions can also be applied to foreigners subject to criminal
proceedings, after the preventive detention measure has been revoked or has
expired.
When the provision revoking or
extinguishing the preventive detention is issued, the judge also decides on the
authorisation for the expulsion. In some clearly defined cases, expulsion
entails immediate escort to the border (expulsion ordered by the Minister of
the Interior, expulsion ordered but not carried out within the timescale
established in the injunction, etc). Law 189/2002 envisages that in the case of
aliens who Òhave stayed in Italian territory for more than 60 days
after their residence permit has expired and have not applied for renewal, the
expulsion shall contain an injunction to leave Italian territory within fifteen
days. The questore shall arrange for the alien to be escorted immediately to the
border if the Prefect perceives a real danger that the same alien might take
action to evade the execution of the provisionÓ.
In other cases, it is adopted
through notification to leave Italian territory within 15 days. As far as
appeals against the expulsion order are concerned, Law 189/2002 establishes
that Òappeals against the expulsion order may only be submitted
to the single judge court in the locality where the authority that issued the
order is based. The single judge court shall accept or reject the appeal,
making its decision through one single provision that shall be adopted within
twenty days of the date the appeal is lodged. The appeal may be signed in
person and may also be submitted through the Italian diplomatic or consular
mission in the country of destination. The signing of the appeal by the
interested party shall be authenticated by officials of the diplomatic or
consular mission, who shall certify to its authenticity and forward it to the
judicial authority. The alien shall be entitled to legal assistance by a lawyer
of his choice holding a letter of attorney issued in the presence of the
consular authority. The alien shall also be eligible for state-funded free
legal aid and, if he does not have a defence counsel, shall be assisted by one
appointed by the judgeÓ.
If the expulsion order envisages that the alien should
be escorted immediately to the border, the appeal may be presented through the
Italian diplomatic or consular mission in the expelled alienÕs destination country.
Only in cases where the expulsion has been decreed by the Minister of the
Interior has the competency of the administrative judge been maintained, since
such provisions are discretionary.
To ensure that the provisions envisaging expulsion under escort to the border and ejection are actually carried out, the law provides for the alien to be held in Temporary Stay and Assistance Centres. These measures can only be applied in the cases specifically indicated by the law, i.e. when it is necessary to provide assistance for the alien or carry out checks to confirm his personal identity or nationality, or in other specific cases where it is not possible to carry out the expulsion with immediate effect. In deference to the provisions of Art. 13 of the Constitution, detention in these centres must be validated by the judge within 48 hours and may not in any case be adopted for a period of more than 20 days, which may be extended to 30. If the procedures are not finalised by the end of this period, the alien is released.
Law 189/2002 amended a number of
procedures regarding the execution of the expulsion order, envisaging the
possibility of a longer period (max. 60 days) of detention in the temporary
stay centres: ÒConvalidation involves detention in the centre for an
overall period of thirty days. If the identity and nationality checks or the
obtaining of travel papers prove to be difficult then the judge, at the
QuestoreÕs request, may extend this period by a further thirty days.
Even before this deadline, the Questore may enforce the expulsion or rejection
and inform the judge of this without delayÓ.
Law 189/2002 also establishes that
ÒWhen it has not been possible to detain the alien in a TSC,
or else the maximum period of detention has expired without the expulsion or
ejection being carried out, the Questore shall order the alien to leave Italian
territory within five days. This order shall be conveyed in written form and
shall set out the penal consequences of failure to respect the orderÓ. Any alien who, without justified cause, remains in
Italian territory in breach of the order issued by the Questore, shall be
punished by arrest and detention of between 6 months and one year. Any expelled
alien who is found on Italian territory shall be punished by imprisonment of
one to four years.
Articles 15 and 16 of Legislative Decree 286/1998 govern expulsions ordered by the judicial authority as a security measure, in the event of the conviction of the alien for one of the offences envisaged by Articles 380 and 381 of the criminal code or, in the event of plea bargaining, of penalties other than detention for aliens who are already in a situation where the expulsion measure pursuant to Art. 13.2 is adopted, or conviction for a non-negligent offence attracting a penalty of up to two years is applicable.
The expulsion measures do not apply to minors under 18 years, pregnant women or aliens in possession of a residence permit, with the exception of the cases envisaged by Art. 9.5.
Finally, provisions of a humanitarian nature have been introduced to Chapter III (Articles 18, 19 and 20) for the protection of foreign nationals who are victims of exploitation by criminal organisations. Aliens in these circumstances are entitled to a special residence permit that enables them to escape from the violence and influence of the criminals in question and to take part in assistance and social integration programmes. The programme also enables them, where appropriate, to cooperate with the authorities in combating crime by helping with the identification and capture of those responsible for the crimes set out in Art. 3 of Law 75/1958 concerning measures to combat the exploitation of prostitution, or those envisaged by Art. 380 of the criminal code.
From an operational point of view, at 31 October 1999 a total of 60,724 aliens had been repatriated through the implementation of expulsion provisions. This figure includes 31,079 individuals turned back at the border, 9,878 turned down by the Questore pursuant to Art. 10.2 of the Consolidated Act, 9,168 expulsions actually carried out, 463 expulsions through provisions by the judicial authority and 10,136 illegal aliens turned back or expelled and returned to their country of origin through re-admission agreements. This last figure has been considered separately in order to evaluate the role of re-admission agreements in facilitating the implementation of repatriation provisions, even though it is not covered by a separate provision since it in any case requires the adoption of the expulsion or rejection provision as a pre-condition.
In the first six months of 2003,
28,671 aliens in receipt of expulsion orders were actually expelled from Italy.
This is about 59.13% of the total number of aliens who, in the same period,
were found to be illegally present on Italian territory. This figure compares
very well with those for the previous years, with a rise of 56% on 2002 and of
53% on 2001.
The positive trend in the
expulsion of illegal aliens is further borne out by the increase recorded in
2002 compared with 2001 (13.9%) and even more markedly compared with 2000 (up
27.8%).
To speed up and increase the
effectiveness of the process of escorting aliens to their country of origin, in
recent years more frequent use has been made of ÒdedicatedÓ charter flights. Five such flights were carried out in
2000, for the repatriation of 433 clandestine immigrants; in 2001 there were 13
flights carrying 1,700 aliens; for 2002 the figures were 26 flights carrying
2,294 aliens, and in the first half of 2003 there were 10 flights carrying 712
aliens.
Again for the first six months of
2003, 42 persons were arrested for the transportation of illegal immigrants,
having been intercepted at the landings or identified after targeted
investigations conducted, including at the international level, with the
cooperation of foreign organisations. 76 boats used for illegal transportation
were seized. In 2002 the number of arrests (277) was up 38.5% on the previous
yearÕs figure of 200.
From this point of view Italy has
attributed particular importance to the re-admission agreements that have been
entered into with 27 countries: 4 EU member states (Austria, Greece, France and
Spain), 17 European states (Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Estonia, FYROM,
Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldavia, Poland, Rumania, Serbia Montenegro,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Hungary), 4 African states (Algeria,
Morocco, Nigeria and Tunisia) and 2 from Asia (Georgia and Sri Lanka).
Targeted initiatives have also
been put in place to reinforce cooperation with the main countries of origin
and transit of illegal migratory flows, of which the following are worthy of
note:
Libya: Operational
agreement with the Libyan security authorities and border police for a stronger
effort to combat illegal migratory flows transiting through Libya and heading
for Italy by sea.
Albania: Technical
assistance and staff training programmes and joint sea surveillance measures
that also envisage the use of Italian boats in Albanian territorial waters.
Slovenia: Activation, along the common border, of joint surveillance and control arrangements.
Turkey: Exchange of strategic and investigative information for use in combating organisations abetting clandestine immigration.
Malta: Intensification of cooperation in investigations to dismantle criminal groups responsible for the transportation by sea of clandestine immigrants from Malta to Sicily,
Tunisia: Supply
of free equipment and material to the police authorities engaged in combating
clandestine immigration.
Cyprus: Possibility for Italian marine units engaged in operations to combat illegal immigration to receive technical-logistics assistance from Cypriot port structures.
Egypt: In the framework of the on-going re-admission negotiations, the organisation in November and December 2002, in agreement with the Egyptian authorities, of two charter flights that enabled the repatriation to Colombo of over 300 Sri Lankan nationals who had been stopped by the Egyptian authorities when attempting to reach Italy illegally.
Syria and
Lebanon: Proposals for border policing training programmes.
China: Mission to Italy, for a two-month trial period, of members of the Chinese police to cooperate in nationality and identification checks on presumed Chinese citizens subject to expulsion measures, with a view to issuing travel papers.
Collaborative relations have also
been established with the diplomatic-consular authorities of the main countries
of origin of illegal migratory flows to Italy, to simplify the nationality
checking procedures for the issuing of travel papers (permits) needed for
repatriation. These include: Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,
Romania and Albania (in view of the well-established cooperation agreement, the
Albanian authorities re-admit their nationals even without papers).
28.
There is very little information in the State party's report on the right to
health. Please explain how medical security and health care are being provided
to all sectors of the Italian society, including the most vulnerable groups of
people, in accordance with the Committee's general comment No. 14 (2000) on the
right to the highest attainable standard of health.
-
Medical and sanitary care
Population
health is a fundamental aim for the individual and the community.
A suitable and
effective health system is essential to guarantee the participation to social
life respecting the principle of equal opportunities inside the whole
community.
The
security of equal opportunities of access to health services is the main aim of
SSN Ð Servizio
Sanitario Nazionale (National Health Service) and the element which determines
funding modalities and criteria for its organisation.
Italian
health system has significantly improved population health conditions.
Main health
indicators, such as children and new born babies mortality, and life
expectation place Italy among the first countries in the world, well beyond
other many countries which invest a higher share of their Gross Internal
Product (PIL).
In Italy,
however, the share of financial resources for health system, both in
relationship to the PIL and in per capita terms, is in the average of OCSE
countries.
As regards
Italian population health, according to Health World Organization data (ÒReport on World Health 2000, For a
more effective sanitary systemÓ), Italy has a prominent position, in a
way to be, for some parameters, among the ten ones and more under
consideration, and at the first and second place in the world list.
The
National Health Service is working, but settlements, balances and gaps
concerning traditional differences among geographical areas, classes, sexes and
age are necessary.
In order to
mitigate such differences the National Health Plan for 2003-2005 has suggested
some priority themes, in particular that one to strengthen the protection of
vulnerable social groups.
-
Chronic patients, elderly and disabled.
Chronic
illness, old age and disability are a reality which must be faced with new
means and strategies.
In fact the
first and the second one have some similar characteristics: 1) they are both
areas in progressive growth; 2) they require a strong integration between
health and social services; 3) they need residential and territorial services
up to now not sufficiently drawn and locally developed; 4) they have
insufficient financial funds.
It is
necessary to act in a preventive way so that invalidating conditions, which can
contribute to a lack of self-sufficiency, do not verify.
As regards
prevention, a feasible approach is of different
nature: primary prevention (healthy life styles) and secondary (preventive
diagnosis of a few types of tumour), and preventive treatment of particular
illnesses.
the chance
to live actively for elderly persons, both from a physical and intellectual
point of view is important.
Therefore,
it is necessary to:
- Make a
more effective and efficient management of the existing services through the
introduction of competitive mechanisms;
- Attribute a greater capacity of
choice to final beneficiaries of the services;
- Support with more attention the families
which have a care task;
- Settle and stimulate the plurality of
services offer;
- Support the net of informal care and
the voluntary service;
- Test new modalities of services
organisation, also co-operating with private sector;
- Activate good quality security
systems and adequate controls over social and health services distributors.
- Childhood and adolescence.
ChildrenÕs
and maternal health protection constitutes an engagement of strategic
significance for social and sanitary systems for the importance of the
influence that the interventions on the promotion of health, care and
rehabilitation have on the quality of the psycho-physical welfare.
In
the adolescence the problems are never merely sanitary, but above all
psychological and social.
Such
troubles can lead to precocious use of drugs, illnesses due to sexual
transmission, unexpected pregnancies, abortion, suicides, etc..
For
what concerns babies and childrenÕs health it is important
to point out that since 1975 up to 2003 the rate of children's mortality (died
within the first year of life born alive by 1000) in Italy decreased more than
76%, from 20,5 of 1975 to 4,9/1000 of 1999, persisting higher in the center and
in the south of the country. The main objective is therefore to reduce the regional
disparities in babies mortality rates, approaching the national average to that
of the area with the lowest mortality index (3,0). Moreover, to reach a better
motherhoodÕs health the initiatives are directed to the
enlargement of the information on
the various and possible risks.
-
Sanitary assistance and immigration.
Provisions
regarding the subject derive from Law n. 40/98. The following text on the
immigration (Government decree n. 286/98) and relative regulation (DPR
n.394/1999), which actually put
into effect the rules of the said text (even more specified with the circular n
¡ 5/2000 of the Ministry of Welfare), gave a clear and
organic frame to the theme of sanitary assistance to foreign citizens living in
Italy.
Moreover
it is necessary to consider that even in the progressive decentralization of the tasks from the central
Government to the Regions, the art.1 of the Law decree n.59/97 preserves to the
Central Government, together with other tasks, also that of the immigration and the political asylum.
The
intention to face in a definite
way the matter of immigrantsÕ health has been confirmed in the context of the
National Sanitary Plan (PSN 2003-2005) with the insertion of specific
provisions aimed to the protection of the "Health of the Immigrants".
The
purpose is to include "regular" immigrants in the National Sanitary
System giving them equal opportunities such as the Italian citizen.
From
this point of view few obstacles, such as the obligatory residence, which in
the past had interfered with the enjoyment of the said right, have been
removed.
The
right to sanitary assistance has been partially recognized also to "irregular" subjects
They can enjoy of preventive
medicine treatments, besides urgent and basic treatments.
The
Ministry of Welfare published a ÒDecalogueÓ
about the rights of foreigners, translated into 22 languages, to make their
access to the structures of the S.S.N. easier and to improve their information;
furthermore, it has published a "Practical Guide" for social and
sanitary operators, in order to improve the quality of the services supplied.
In
the framework of the numerous interventions necessary to eliminate the
marginalization of immigrants in difficult conditions, the main actions
outlined in the PSN are:
á Improvement of pregnant
foreign women assistance and reduction of the recourses to the IVG (voluntary
pregnancy interruption).
á Reduction of incidence
of the HIV, of illnesses sexually transmitted and tubercolosis, through
interventions of prevention.
á Improvement of vaccine
therapy to the immigrant children's equal to the one practised to the Italian
population.
á Reduction of cases of
accidents among immigrant workers, with the same procedures carried out for the
Italian workers.
29.
Please indicate to what extent HIV/AIDS, drug abuse and alcoholism problems are
problems in the State party. Please indicate what effective measures have been
adopted to combat these threats.
a) AIDS
In
Italy the number of cases of AIDS denounced, as soon as the epidemic burst,
reached the level of 50.000. In 2002 the new cases of Aids were 1777. This
datum confirms the tendency arisen in the three-year period 1999-2001, in which
the number of people affected with Aids had settled to 2000 cases every year,
after a constant reduction in the previous period, owed both to the effect of
the retro-viral therapies and to the effect of prevention. The systems of
control of the new diagnoses for the detection of HIV infection present in a few Italian areas, suggest
that the incidence of new infections has reached a constant trend in the last
years and,in a different way than the period 1980 and the beginning of 1990, he
does not decrease any more.
According
to the aim fixed by the OMS in 1999, each Government should carry out, within
2015, a reduction of mortality incidence and of the negative consequences of
the HIV infection and of illnesses
sexually transmitted.
In
this aim, the priority actions are:
-
the improvement of the control and the monitoring of the HIV infection;
- the contrast of the transmission of
HIV and some other infectious agents;
- the improvement of the quality of
life of people infected;
-the reduction of dangerous sexual
behaviours and the enlargement of information specially among young people;
- the enlargement of vaccine therapy
with interventions in favour of the research which involve public and private
funds;
- the social reinsertion of the
patients with HIV infection.
The
social insertion of people affected from Aids, which are treated precociously
and which have a quite long life expectation, requires a considerable
commitment.
These
people, in fact, can more easily plan their life, as the treatments allow them
to live for many years. Their life project generally allows the complete
reintegration in the world of labour and in that of the society. For this
reason, these people need special programs, supported by adequate
interventions, aimed to reinsert them in their former positions and
occupations..
b) DRUG
ADDICTION
The
diffusion of several types of drugs often reaches a quite large number of young
people often unaware of the risks the drugs involve and also deprived of
positive objectives for their life.
Adequate
public strategies require the promotion of an institutional cultural attitude,
aimed to oppose the idea of the innocuousness of the drugs and the
"normality" in the behaviours of the drug-addicts, which determines a
decrease of the alert in the social context.
The
main question of the new social policy in this matter is the consideration that
drug addiction and the use of the illicit substances cannot be faced only with
the mere pharmacological control, as this would cause the renunciation to the
personal and social recovery of the person.
The
Chairmanship Of The Council Of The Ministers has set up the "National Department
for the Anti-Drug Policies" (following the Council of the Ministers
PresidentÕs Decrees of November 15th, 2001 and February 15th, 2002), with the
task to ensure the necessary administrative support to the President and the
National Committee in their function of address and co-ordination of anti-drug
plan of action. The structure, in the respect of the functions attributed to
other State administrations in the matter of contrast to drug-addiction and
recovery of the people devoted to the use of drugs and to substances affecting
mental faculties, gathers all the necessary information in order to facilitate
the functions of guidance and co-ordination of the Government; to arrange,
following GovernmentÕs guidelines, a triennial plan contrasting the diffusion of
drug-addiction, new proposals and operating plans to carry out, together with
the other competent administrations, and elaborate adequate statistics on all
the aspects of the drug addiction phenomenon; to arrange proposals of revision
of the current legislation on the matter to be submitted to the National
Co-ordination Committee for the Anti-Drug Plan of Action; to verify the observance, from
the part of competent Ministries and the other operating public and private
subjects, of the guide-lines and objectives described in the Plan and of the
most important further provisions of Government in the field drug addicts recovery, ,either for the utilization of the financial
resources, and for the realization
of the interventions.
The
most recent data show that the phenomenon of drug-addiction basically concerns
the contemporary use of several substances, from the so-called light drugs, to
the anfetamin, to the heroin, to the cocaine.
Moreover
data show that the age of the first approach with the substances is in
continuos and progressive decrease between the 11 and the 17 years, with an
average of the first experience settled beneath the 13 years.
Furthermore,
official data put in evidence that:
- the use of heroin is increasing,
especially through new ways of assumption ( smoke, inhalation );
- the use of cocaine,
which now is a very popular drug, is increasing;
- the use of "ecstasy" and
amfetamine is constantly increasing;
- the use of cannabis involves almost
a third of the adolescents and such a behaviour is considered
"normal" from a great part of public opinion and media.
In
order to face such a situation, the European Council officially adopted a Plan
of Action on the matter of drugs for the years 2000-2004, showing the following
aims and engaging the countries which joined the Plan to the full acceptance:
- large reduction, within 5 years, of the
use of illicit drugs and of the number of the new consumers, above all for
young people of age lower than the 18 years;
- significant reduction of the incidence of
damages caused to the health by the drugs and, therefore, reduction of the correlated deaths;
- considerable increase of the number
of the drug-addicts successfully
treated for disintoxication;
- important decrease of illicit drugs
availability;
- significant reduction of the number
of crimes correlated to drugs;
- effective contrast to the recycling of money
of illicit origin and to illicit traffic of chemical substances used in the
production of drugs.
In
our country operate 555 SERT (Services for Drug-Addictions), which give
hospitality to 150.400 subjects; such a datum presents an increase of about
2,2% with respect to the previous year. The best part of people staying at SERT
(81,4%) is mostly dependent from heroin, while the subjects which use only
cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine represent an insignificant percentage.
These
structures, whose beneficiaries are 19.465 subjects, are aimed to the social
rehabilitation and are partially conceived as a residence and generally managed
by private subjects which work in the social sector.
The
government intention is to give full application either to the E.U. Plan and to
the recommendation of the U.N in the matter of the reduction of drugs demand
and supply, strengthening the initiatives (DPEF 2002-2006) oriented to the
prevention of drug-addiction, and to the recovery of the
value of the person in his entirety and its reintegration in the world of
labour, Among the most important intervention
are to be considered the campaigns of
information aimed to promote responsible and respectful personal and social
life style.
c)
ALCOHOL
The
reduction of the sanitary and social damages caused by the alcohol is at
present one of the most important aims of public welfare.
Several
evidences show that people and in particular young people, when they abuse of
alcohol, are more frequently inclined to behaviours dangerous for themselves
and for the others (drive and work in
inadequate psyco-physical conditions) and also inclined to smoke and/or
drug-addiction Alcohol acts as one
of the way of approaching, especially among the youngest people, the use of
illegal substances. The use of alcoholics in Italy has decreased from 1981;
however further efforts have been done to reach the aims fixed by OMS and in
particular by U.E. for the reduction of the dangers connected to alcohol.
30.
Law 40/1998 on immigration and the conditions of foreigners in Italy accords
children of Italians and foreigners equal access to free and compulsory
education. Please explain whether children of immigrants, refugees and
asylum-seekers are afforded the same treatments ad nationals.
Equality
of access to the education and equality of school treatment between Italian and
foreign pupils
Starting from the basic constitutional provisions, and
the successive rules of application, for which Italian school is opened to
everybody, citizens or foreigners (art.34 Cost), a few statistical data of the
Ministry of Education, University and Research ( 2002-2003 ÐPrivate and Public Schools)
show that:
Foreign pupils are 232.766 and represent a percentage
of 2,96% on the total of the school population.
They were 30.547 in 1992-1993 with a significant raise
respect to the previous school year (+50.999).
Their distribution in the different types of schools
(2002-2003) is as follows:
> school: 48.356 (3,40% on the total of the school population)
> Primary
school: 95.346 ( 3,75% "" "" " )
> Secondary school: 55.888 ( 3,46% "" "" " )
> Upper
school: 33.176 ( 1,45% "" "" " )
TOTAL: 232.766 ( 2,96%
"" "" " )
Besides statistics, there are some jurisdictional
provisions, which grant not only an equal treatment between Italian and foreign
pupils, but also ensure the best conditions for a common life and for the
integration in the framework of an intercultural education:
C.M. 09/8/1989, no.. 301, "Integration of foreign
pupils in the obligatory school - Promotion and co-ordination of the
initiatives for the application of the right to study".
C.M. 07/22/1990, no.. 205, "The obligatory school
and foreign pupil - The intercultural education" (this circular
introduces, for the first time, the concept of intercultural education).
L. 03/6/1998, no.. 40, art. 36, which underlines the
educational importance of the linguistic and cultural differences: ÒIn the realization of didactic
and organizational autonomy, the school institutions carry out for all the
pupils, intercultural projects aimed to the extension of the formative offer,
to the improvement of the linguistic and cultural differences and the promotion
of initiatives of hospitality and exchange".
D.L. 07/25/1998, no.. 286-"Legislative Text
concerning the discipline of the immigration and the rules on the condition of
foreigners", which, in the educational matter, emphasizes the
organizational aspects of the school, the teaching of Italian as second
language, the maintenance of original language and culture, the training
of teachers aimed to the social
integration.
D.P.R. 08/31/1999, no.. 39-" Regulations of
application of the legislative text concerning the discipline of the
immigration and the rules on the condition of the foreigner " (such a
regulation, moreover, apart from the juridical position of foreign minors,
guarantees them the right to the education).
C.M. no..
155/2001, aimed to support the staff engaged in schools with high migratory
flows.
C.M. no..
160/2001, aimed to set up language courses for non-E.U. adults and minors
citizens.
Actually, a significant statistic element could be the
evaluation of the school success (the data are drawn by the mentioned
publication).
For the primary and secondary schools, the
interpretation of data during the considered three-year period (from 1999-2000
to 2001-2002) and their stability in the time put in evidence that:
‑ in the primary school the gap
between the results of the final examinations of foreign pupils and those of
other pupils is slightly higher of a 2% in favour of these lasts;
‑ in the secondary school this
gap reaches about 8% (always in favour of the pupils considered all together);
‑ the same gap (8%) is
registered in the secondary school.
Therefore,
the different gap between school improvement of foreign pupils with respect to
that of Italian pupils appears of a certain importance with reference to
secondary and upper schools; the Ministry recognizes that such a datum should
be considered with special analyses and wider researches.
It should also be considered the trend of foreign
students to choose shorter educational courses, such as the professional
institutes, whose certificates let them easily enter the world of jobs..
It must also be mentioned the presence of foreigners in adults courses,
instituted by the M.I.U.R. through the Permanent Territorial Centers, based in
all the Country areas.
Moreover the courses settled for the linguistic and social integration of
foreign citizens, in the 2001-2002, are 2.219, with 42.855 students registered
(22.158 men and 20.697 women), with a majority in the northern areas
(especially Lombardia, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna).
For what concerns the didactic activity, the M.I.U.R. carried out a
research in the year 2001, on the
presence in the school of specific policies for the insertion and the
integration of the foreign pupils ( MIUR. ÒThe society transformationÓ Rome, June 2001).
The recent provisions underline the distinctive
elements of the policies which the single institutes have to carry out in their
Plan of Formative Proposals (P.O.F), which constitutes the formative plans
every single institute has to elaborate, following the general addresses established
by the School College Representatives, the territorial corporations and the
proposals of the parents for the most complete drawing up of each personal
curriculum.
This research tried to analyse in which way projects
aiming to the integration of the foreign pupils were inserted by the single
institutes in their own framework
The results were that best part of institutes (53,7%)
inserted in their yearly planning initiatives of intercultural education. The
best results have been found in the secondary schools (56,2%), in the primary
schools (54,7%) and in institutes including primary and secondary schools
(54%).
The research is dated 2001 and it hasnÕt not yet been updated.
However, it must be considered that the said
percentages are susceptible to increase, considered the growing commitment of
the administration in planning courses for the multicultural training of of the
teaching staff.
31.
Please explain why, despite the considerable budgetary allocations to
education, there is a decrease in the number of school population, especially
at the pre-primary, primary and lower secondary schools. Is the drop in the
birth rate the sole reason for this decrease? Please indicate whether school
attendance by children of immigrants has reversed this trend.
Following data published by MIUR in the yearly
issue ÒPupils with no Italian citizenship Ð
Public and private schools (June
2002), it can be deduced that in our country non Italian students ( 181.167- 2001-2002), though representing a percentage of 2,3% of the whole national
school population, and lower than the one desumed in other important European
Countries (for instance, England, France, Germany, Belgium or Holland) and in any case lower than the incidence of the immigrant population on
the whole Italian population in his complex (4,2%, also considering minors
without permit of stay and the one that will become regular), however show a
rate of annual increase ( +23,3% with respect to 2000-2001, when they were
beyond 147.000 and the 1,8% of the whole students in Italy ) and underlines an always more important presence
in our country.
It is sufficient to notice that in
the last 5 school years the foreign pupils are even more than trebled (
in1996-1997 were in fact only 57.600, the 0,7% of the students registered in
the national schools, and then the five-year increase has been of 215,6%),
while in less than 20 years their numerical consistency is practically
increased by 30 times (in 1983-1984 they were just
6.104, less than 0,1% than all the pupils counted in the Country). In that way,
small towns, which till ten years
ago never had, if not in exceptional cases, significant presence of foreign
pupils in their schools, at present they have a better amount with respect to the big urban
centers.
Furthermore, considering the
remarkable trend of growth of
foreign students in the schools Ð an increase decidedly accelerated with
respect to the rate of physiological increase in the immigrant population in
his complex Ð in 2002 led the MIUR to revise the criteria used to draw up
statistics on the presence of not Italian pupils in a 15 years period,
connecting it in a more direct way to the greater growth speed of the
immigrants until 18 years of age in the Country.
32.
How serious is the problem of dropouts in the State party, especially at the
secondary level of education, and what effective measures have been taken to
combat it?
The
school dispersion, phenomenon which in the last decades underwent a sensible
reduction, settled in the primary schools at "physiological" levels,
while it is still significant but restricted, in secondary schools. In upper
schools, with slight differences with respect to the last school year, the
professional and artistic institutes settled as the most demanded.
This
is the situation which emerges from the research on the school dispersion
realized by the Statistics Bureau of The Ministry Of The Education considering
the school year 2001-02. The research concerns the public primary, secondary
and upper school students who formally retired within the law terms (excluding
those who moved to other schools), students who were not examined because of
their absences, students which went out of the circuit of education after they
finished the obligatory school without however getting certificates or
diplomas..
The
research is not exhaustive of the phenomena of abandonment and escape, however
it analyses a few important aspects connected to situations of school
dispersion which can provide reliable indications on this matter.
For
what concerns primary schools, data resulting from the abandonment of school
(students registered but not attending or interruptions not formalized) the
percentage is about 0,8%, slightly higher
than the past year. Any way forwhat concerns
school attendance, few cases observed can determine changes and in terms of a hundredth part of per
cent unity. Furthermore, the totality of the cases is almost constituted by
nomad students whose families decide of move elsewhere without to give warning
or not send the children any more to school: it is this the case, for
instance, in which there has been
an increase in 0,005% with respect to the last year.
In
secondary schools, where values are higher (in 2001-02 the 0,31% of the
students abandoned the school), the trend of the last few years has been quite
regular, and the values of Italy are at half between those of the southern and
insular allotments and those of the Center and North.. The greater
concentration of abandonments ( 0,23% national ) is present between the pupils "never
attending even though registered", with tips of the 0,45% in the South
(0,70 in Calabria) and 0,34% in the islands. Also in this kind of school values
are influenced by the choices made by the pupils of nomad origin, which,
however, constitute only a part of those who interrupt the studies.
In
the upper schools the total percentage of the students who are not evaluated
was equal to 4,62% against the 4,54% of the previous year. The increase of the
number of students who havenÕt been is present in all types of education
except in the scientific secondary schools whose number is reduced (from 2,15%
to 1,84%). From the exam of the typology of the students not evaluated the
number of retired students are officially lightly increased (from 2,77% to
2,93%) while the ones withdrawn for other reasons are decreased (from 1,77% to
1,68%). As for the past the school dispersion regards more the professional
institutes (8,93%) and school of arts (6,49%) while the phenomenon is quite
restricted in the scientific secondary schools (1,84%). The first year of course is the most risky
which, even though with respect to the previous school year he registered a
light loss for a few types of education, altogether in Italy saw an abstention
from the studies of 6,4% with a peak in the islands equal to 10,21%.
34.
The State party' s report states that the rights of linguistic and religious
minority groups are respected in education. Please explain how these minority
rights are actually being implemented.
The range of constitutional rules provided for the
protection of the religious freedom is wide. Here below a synthetic review.
Art. 2: It
recognizes and guarantees the inviolable rights of the man, also considered the
social formations in which his personality is developed.
Art. 3: It
sanctions the principle of non discrimination, also with respect to the
religion by whoever professed.
Art. 7: It
sanctions the reciprocal independence between the State and Catholic church,
each being sovereign in its order.
Art. 8: It
provides for the same juridical treatment and freedom for the all the religious
confessions.
Art. 19: It
recognizes the freedom of religion
and cult for anyone.
Art. 20: It
sanctions the prohibition of special legislative limitations and special taxes
for the constitution, juridical capacity and capacity of acting of the religious corporations.
For what concerns, in particular, religious education,
the new Agreement stipulated between Italian Government and the Holy Seat on
February 8th, 1984, while it abrogated
art. 1 of the Treaty (for which "Catholic, Apostolic and Roman religion is
the only religion of the state")), it has at the same time established the engagement of the Italian
Government to ensure the teaching of the Catholic religion in the public schools
(excluded University), however ensuring each school the right to choose if
teaching or not, without to be cause for that of any discrimination; students
who do not choose Catholic religion can follow an alternative teaching proposed
by the college of the teachers or can make individual study or can be free from
any obligation during this lesson (as confirmed from the sentence of the
Italian Constitutional Court no. 2003 of April 11-12th, 1989 ).
For what concerns other minorities rights, and in
particular linguistic and cultural rights, it has been promulgated Law no. 482
December 15th, 1999 to carry out the principles of art. 6 of the
Italian Constitution.
For what concerns education, art. 5 of the said Law
establishes that the Ministry Of Public Education can, with its own decrees,
promote and realize national and local projects concerning the study of
languages and cultural traditions for those student of a linguistic minority
and it can authorize, for such purpose an expense of 2 billion of lire (now euro
1.032.614).
Such a funds are annually spent with big satisfaction
of the interested minorities.
[1] CNEL-ISTAT, Maternity
and the Participation of Women in the Labour Market, seminar,
2 December 2003.