Italy: police racism
01 January 1991
Italy: police racism
artdoc February=1996
AI INDEX : EUR 30/03/95
ITALY: UNITED NATIONS COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE HIGHLIGHTS
"DANGEROUS TREND TOWARDS RACISM" BY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS"
On 27 April, during its 14th session currently under way in
Geneva, the United Nations (UN) Committee against Torture
examined Italy's second periodic report on its implementation
of the UN Convention against Torture.
In its concluding comments the committee emphasized its
concern over the persistence of ill-treatment by prison and
law enforcement officers and over "a dangerous trend towards
racism", noting that the majority of victims of ill-treatment
belong "either to certain foreign countries or to minorities".
It pointed out that this concern was shared by the UN Human
Rights Committee.
The Committee against Torture also drew particular attention
to its concern over information it had received from non-
governmental organizations, such as Amnesty International,
about a series of serious acts of torture, and about the
deaths of several detainees. It stated that, in its view, the
punishments imposed on public officers in cases where trials
had taken place did not appear proportionate to the severity
of the acts committed.
In addition the committee expressed alarm about the level of
prison overcrowding, the high number of inmates awaiting a
definitive sentence and temporary legislation allowing the
suspension of certain humanitarian standards relating to the
treatment of prisoners.
The committee recommended that Italy again consider including
a specific offence of torture, as defined by the Convention,
in its penal legislation and that it closely monitor the
implementation of safeguards against ill-treatment during
initial detention, with special reference to access to a
lawyer and to a doctor. It also recommended that the
government that it ensure that complaints of torture and ill-
treatment be speedily and effectively investigated and that
the punishments imposed on those responsible be adequate and
effective, that it improve the rights of torture victims to
state compensation; that it offer them a rehabilitation
program and that it establish further relevant training
programs for law enforcement officers and medical personnel.
Amnesty International welcomed the committee's
recommendations. The organization had submitted a report to
the committee which detailed its concerns regarding
allegations of torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement
and prison officers in Italy, pointing out that there had been
a noticeable increase in the number of such allegations
received from across the country during the 1990s and that a
high proportion of them concerned immigrants from outside
Europe -- most of them from Africa -- and an increasing number
of Roma.
The organization said it was concerned that elements within
some law enforcement agencies might be subjecting detainees to
ill-treatment on a regular basis and that, although Italy had
adopted certain legislative and administrative measures
designed to combat the use of ill-treatment against detainees,
in practice these were not being fully respected.
The report cited numerous individual cases to illustrate the
organization's concerns and drew attention to the lack of
thoroughness in a number of judicial investigations into
complaints of ill-treatment and to the nominal sentences
frequently imposed in cases where officers have been found
guilty of ill-treating detainees.
Amnesty International's report entitled: Italy - Alleged
Torture and Ill-treatment by Law Enforcement and Prison
Officers (AI Index: EUR 30/01/95) was published on 26 April
1995 and is available in English, French and Spanish.