Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council

Third Universal Periodic Review of Italy during the 34th Session of the UPR Working Group

On November 4, Italy, represented in Geneva by a delegation led by the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Manlio Di Stefano, and by the President of the Interministerial Committee for Human Rights, Fabrizio Petri, was the subject of observations during the “Universal Periodic Review” (UPR) of the UN Human Rights Council which checks every five years (previously every four years) the work of all Member States in the area of human rights.

Associazione Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII (APG23) has been involved in this procedure since 2011 and has presented several monitoring reports for the various countries in which it is present on the five continents. In relation to this review cycle, the third to Italy, APG23 and other NGOs have contributed by presenting their recommendations (link to the report submitted by APG23) and actively participating in the pre-session which took place last October, so being able to apply directly to the Italian representative to the UN and advocate with the delegations of the Council States. APG23 was indeed selected with its speaker to orally present a statement in the public assembly during the pre-work session, focusing on its own direct experience with the Roma people and the related human rights issues.

During the final session of the November 4 exam, the member countries took into consideration, in addition to the report provided by our Government and the UN agencies, what was expressed and recommended by the NGOs.

With particular satisfaction we highlight those aimed at strengthening strategies to combat acts of discrimination, to control the speeches that incite hatred and the marginalization of the most vulnerable groups (in particular migrants, Roma communities), promoting a culture of interculturality and pluralism and specifically the questions put forward in writing with respect to the interactive dialogue between Germany, the United Kingdom and Ireland (link to the document) regarding the Roma minority. The questions in fact largely reflect the subject of the oral statement brought by the APG23 to the pre-session,discrimination, forced evictions and housing solutions in application of the National Inclusion Strategy that requires effective implementation in addition to what is reported by other civil society relations.

Of great importance is also the need and the need reaffirmed by different States to restore the effective functioning of the National Observatory on Childhood and Adolescence, clarifying their roles and functions, a specific recommendation indicated in the APG report23.

Following the many convergences of the NGOs’ reports (including APG23) on the issue of migration for interventions aimed at abolishing and / or amending the two recent Security Decrees , Italy was asked to ensure and respect the principle of non-refoulement and urgently ratify the Convention on the Rights of Working Migrants and their Families. Given the serious situation and the emergence of the phenomenon, it was urgently required that the country set up a system for monitoring trafficking and exploitation of people and migrants, moreover, that sea rescue systems be strengthened and not obstructed of the NGOs

Worthy of further note is the recommendation for the subscription of The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration request also contained in the APG23 monitoring report and more urgently than ever.

Waiting for the official release of the UPR Working Group Report (so-called Item 6) where we will read in a timely manner all the individual recommendations for sectors and topics of intervention and we will understand how many and which of the indications of the various NGOs and Associations involved in the procedure will be accepted by the States recommending, we consider it important to emphasize, in the summary summarizing and the observations of civil society (link) the novelty attributable to APG23 of the request for the implementation of the so-called “Nordic Model” for what concerns the gender violence deriving from the prostitution system such as explicitly recommended by the European Parliament Resolution in 2014 (known as the Honeyball Resolution) 5 .

The Universal Review procedure (UPR) is one of the international instruments for the protection of human rights that more than others allows civil society to interact with the institutions of the United Nations and is certainly recognizable as one of the main instruments of democratization and for our Country as also mentioned by the Hon. Manlio Di Stefano, Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, human rights have great and indispensable significance in internal policies, an indispensable safeguard for peaceful coexistence and social cohesion that finds precise reference in the Italian Constitution.