THE MAIN JURIDICAL ISSUES CONCERNING ROMA/SINTI COMMUNITIES IN ITALY: NO RECOGNITION-NO PROGRESS Prof. Ezio Benedetti International Institute for High Legal and Economic Studies for Development (IGES), Gorizia, Italy REDUPRE CONCLUDING WORKSHOP May 2013 Maribor, Slovenia

Italy has ratified most human rights treaties, ICEAFRD, ICCPR, ECHR, ESC, FCPNM, Charter of Fundamental Rights of Nice, as Eu member Treaty on European Union and therefore committed to the implementation of Directive 2000/43 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin. Recently, Italy has also made a commitment to implement the European Commission’s Communication 173/2011 by the National Strategy for Inclusion of Roma, Sinti and Caminanti of The constitutional principles (art. 3 and art. 6) and the Law no. 482/1999 recognize some specific rights to minorities intended, by the law, as historical linguistic minorities but no recognition and consequently no rights are recognized to the Roma and Sinti communities living in Italy. THE MAIN JURIDICAL ISSUES CONCERNING ROMA/SINTI COMMUNITIES IN ITALY: NO RECOGNITION-NO PROGRESS

This situation, unique in Europe, hardly affects the possibility for Roma people to exit from the vicious circle of camps, unemployment, school drop-out, social and economic exclusion and consequently discrimination and stereotypes affecting these communities. Since there is no universally accepted definition of minority in international law, when the Italian parliament adopted the Law no. 482 it applied, to determine the groups to recognize, the criteria that at that time were considered appropriate, first of all, the link with a specific territory, which resulted in the exclusion of the Roma minority by those recognized 2. THE MAIN JURIDICAL ISSUES CONCERNING ROMA/SINTI COMMUNITIES IN ITALY: NO RECOGNITION-NO PROGRESS

CONSEQUENCES OF THE NON RECOGNITION F ROMA AS MINORITY IN ITALY The exclusion of the Roma by law framework and the absence of specific legislation to protect their identity and culture at the national level have had the further consequence of their lack of participation in political and social life of the country In the past, the House of Representatives has proposed a specific Law for the Roma: NO REAL POLITICAL WILL The result of this situation is a broadening of the refusal to recognize the Roma Italian those rights that are normally guaranteed to citizens, or, in the case of foreign Roma, the rights normally granted to foreign nationals. THE ONLY GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSE IN THE LAST FEW YEARS ARE AIMED TO FOSTER HISTERIA, HATE AND FOCUS ATTENTION ON ROMA AS CRIMINALS AND DANGEROUS PEOPLE (emergency measures adopted in by the Italian government against Roma, IN FORCE TILL 2011)

2. CONSEQUENCES OF THE NON RECOGNITION F ROMA AS MINORITY IN ITALY In our opinion there are serious doubts about the legality of these measures adopted by the government, even for what concerns the legal basis for the declaration of a State of emergency. In fact, according to Article 15 of the ECHR, because a State can declare a state of emergency that allows derogation of rules of domestic and international law only if there is a serious risk to the life of the nation (or even just parts of it), which in this case is at least questionable. DESPITE THE ADOPTION ON FEBRUARY 2012 OF THE NATIONAL STRATEGY ON THE ROMA INCLUSION THE SITUATION HAS NOT YET BEEN SOLVED: NO RECOGNITION – NO PROGRESS

PROPOSALS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS The 11 Regional laws adopted since 1986 are not sufficient to adequately protect Roma and give them a legal status (mainly focused on camp issue) SOME REGIONAL LAWS (FVG, TUSCANY, SARDINIA) ARE NOT ONLY VERY ADVANCED BUT IN SOME CASES EFFECTIVE, DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE ATTENTION AT THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIMENSION IS ALSO SUSTAINED BY ECONOMIC RESOURCES PROVIDED IN REGIONAL BUDGETS THIS COULD BE A MODEL FOR THE NATIONAL ACTION PLAN!! EU SHOULD URGE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT TO RECOGNIZE ROMA NATIONAL ACTION PLAN (involve local authorities) INTERMINISTERIAL APPROACH