Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Follow-up letter sent to the State party, 30 August 2013

The letter sent to Italy contains the Committee’s observations on the information received from the Italian Government on the implementation of the recommendations contained in paragraphs 13 and 15 of the Committee’s Concluding Observations, adopted following the consideration of the State party’s combined 16th to 18th periodic report. On the establishment of an independent national human rights institution, the Committee expressed its concern for the public unavailability of the bill No. 2720 and for the lack of consultation of civil society organizations in the drafting process. With regard to the integration of Roma and Sinti communities, the Committee regrets the lack of information concerning the provision of effective remedies to affected Roma and Sinti communities following the implementation of the Nomad Emergency Decree (NED) and requested Italy to provide, in its next periodic report, also a clarification on whether the affected Roma and Sinti communities have been able to benefit directly from the funds that were initially allocated for the NED and then redistributed to the interested municipalities.