Domestic Cases: Italy
10 August 2015
State Response to Violence and Hate Speech
Florence Police Database
As part of the ERRC’s work on the State response violence and hate speech, and inspired by work done by colleagues in Hungary, we are increasingly challenging the ways in which police harass Roma instead of investing time and resources in protecting them, notably against hate crimes. In Florence, we are collaborating with a local lawyer to support a group of Romani women of Romanian nationality who allege that they have unlawfully had personal data about them processed by police. More information about the problem can be found here (in Italian).
La Continassa
An anti-Roma pogrom took place in Turin on 15 December 2011. The ERRC is supporting the victims of this racist violence to enable them to participate in the criminal proceedings against the perpetrators. In July 2015, the criminal court convicted the accused of hate crimes.
Via Santa Maria del Riposo
On 11-12 March 2014, Roma in Naples living on a settlement in via Santa Maria del Riposo were victims of physical attacks, apparently to force them to move . At least one person was injured and property was destroyed, and the Roma who were living in the settlement fled. The police did not intervene to stop the attack. The ERRC is supporting the victims to pursue a criminal complaint.
Access to Housing
La Barbuta
About twenty-five kilometres from the centre of Rome is an isolated, so-called “formal camp” for Roma called La Barbuta. It is one of the worse examples of the way Roma, during the previous Roma State of Emergency that the Italian courts declared unlawful, were moved to isolated, segregated, substandard “social housing”. The ERRC is playing an amicus curiae role in the race-discrimination case being brought in the Italian courts to challenge the conditions in the camp: we have provided information and arguments designed to help the court decide the case. In June 2015, the first-instance court handed down a historic judgment finding discrimination. An English translation of the ERRC’s submissions can be found here. The ERRC is very grateful to the law firm Hogan Lovells (Milan) for translating the judgment into English on a pro bono basis. The translation they prepared can be found here.
Via Salviati
In September 2013, Roma families living on via Salviati in Rome were forcibly evicted from their homes located in an informal camp. Most of them were left on the street and few returned to live in the “formal camp” they fled because of the degrading conditions there. The ERRC is supporting those evicted to challenge the eviction in the Italian administrative courts because of the failure to follow the basic standards accompanying evictions and the failure to rehouse those evicted.
Viale Forlanini
In March 2014, Roma families living in on viale Forlanin in Milan were forcibly evicted from their homes located in an informal camp, having received no formal notice of the eviction in advance. The ERRC is supporting those evicted to challenge the eviction in the Italian administrative courts because of the failure to follow the basic standards for evictions and the failure to rehouse those evicted.
Free Movement and Migration
State of Emergency Follow Up Cases (Milan)
During the State of Emergency declared in Italy concerning Roma, which was subsequently ruled unlawful, the authorities processed significant amounts of personal data of Roma (for example, taking and recording their fingerprints). The ERRC is supporting some of those whose data was processed to challenge the violation of their rights resulting from this data processing.
Identity Documents
Naturalisation (Turin)
There are significant numbers of Roma who are stateless or at risk of statelessness in Italy. One of the challenges in correcting this situation is the application of Italy’s naturalisation law to those who have been born and lived in Italy all their lives. The ERRC is supporting a test case challenging the unfair application of Italy’s naturalisation laws and its discriminatory impact on Roma.
