Italy: "trend towards racism"
01 January 1991
Italy: "trend towards racism"
artdoc February=1996
ITALY: UNITED NATIONS COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE HIGHLIGHTS
"DANGEROUS TREND TOWARDS RACISM" BY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS"
On 27 April 1995, 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.