The report continues its investigation citing the Advisory Committee on the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (ACFC): "In the country persist today xenophobia and racism towards asylum seekers and refugees, including roma, and create a negative climate toward these people.The ACFC also shows the sometimes harsh conditions of detention of irregular immigrants, before the expulsion to their countries of origin (25 October 2005). The Committee also notes the concluding remarks of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD, March 2008) expressing concern at reports of serious violations of human rights of undocumented immigrant workers [..], including harassment, minimum wages received with considerable delay, long working hours and situations of bounded work in which the payment is withheld by employers as payment for accommodation in overcrowded buildings with no electricity and running water. The CERD report also the costant racist and xenophobic speeches against non-European immigrants, cases of incitement to hatred that have targeted foreigners and the roma in particular, complaints of mistreatment of roma, especially those from Romania by police during raids in roma camps, particulary after the presidential decree of November 2007 on the expulsion of foreigners. In the same context, the Committee notes that the UN Special Envoy on racism, the independent experts UN on the issues of minorities and the UN Special Envoy on human rights of migrants have issued on July 15 2008 a statement expressing their serious concerns about recent actions, statements and proposed measures against the roma and immigrants in Italy , especially the proposal to take the fingerprints of all roma in order to identify those living in Italy without documents. They also condemned the aggressive and discriminatory rhetoric used by political leaders explicitly associating the roma to criminality, thus creating a general climate of hostility, antagonism and stigma among the public. The Committee is deeply concerned by these reports of violations of basic human rights, especially of undocumented migrants from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, and the growing climate of intolerance, violence and discrimination against the migrant population, especially the roma of Romanian origin. Since such events have an impact on the level of protection of basic human rights and workers and the conditions of life and work of the immigrant population in Italy, the Committee considers that they raise serious questions of non-application of the Convention. The Committee recalls the obligation of the Government in respect of Article 1 of the Convention, to respect the basic human rights of all migrant workers, irrespective of their immigration status. Furthermore, according to Article 9 (1) the government has an obligation to ensure that immigrant workers, even those entered illegally, are not deprived of their rights in relation to the work actually performed as concerce remuneration, social security and other benefits. The Committee recalls also the obligation of the government, in accordance with Articles 10 and 12 of the Convention, to take measures to ensure equality of treatment in relation to working conditions for all migrant workers legally in the country, as well as measures to inform and educate the population in order to raise awareness of discrimination to change attitudes and behavior. These measures should cover not only the anti-discriminatory policies in general but should ensure that people accept immigrant workers and their families as full members of society.
The text continues in bold and italics (the previous bolds were added by me): The Committee hopes that the government is able to act effectively to address the climate of intolerance, violence and discrimination against immigrants in Italy, including roma, and to ensure effective legal protection and practice of basic human rights of all migrant workers regardless of their status. Hopes that the necessary steps are taken to help victims in asserting their rights and make sure that the provisions of law relating to discrimination are better understood and observed, and their violation punished more effectively. The Committee hopes that the next full report will contains information on activities undertaken in these fields.
Ah, I find it liberating to translate the documents of the United Nations. You breath a suddenly purer air, the atmosphere of civil rights, of hope in a better world. So very different from what we breathe today in Italy.
Where the gravity of this relationship was not understood or communicated by the media either. The violation of the Convention is one of the most serious among all the signatory countries and the most serious among the Western countries. Foreign Minister Frattini responded saying that these are false allegations, not proven, to reject to the sender. I would replicate to the minister that living in this country, reading the news, having seen the conditions in which many immigrants live in the first person I do not see how you can say that the statements of the Committee of Experts are false and unsubstantiated. Perhaps the minister should leave his palace and walk through the streets. Perhaps he should read more newspapers. The Minister of Labor, Sacconi, advance the hypothesis that "appeals has come from within the country." Perhaps he mean that the CGIL (Italian left workers union) had instigated the ILO to speak bad of Italy. Perhaps the CGIL sees how immigrant workers are treated precisely because its task is to protect the rights of workers. Ah, that is in theory what the Minister Sacconi should do, too.
Francesco Defferrari
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Marcelo Alves
Brasil - RJ