In a report published on Thursday 14 December, Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, makes a series of recommendations to Italy following her observations during a visit from 19 to 23 June.
Several of these measures concern the rights of migrants and asylum seekers.
The Commissioner reiterated the need for shared European responsibility in this area and acknowledged the efforts made by Italy, but called for measures in a number of areas: repeal of legislation and policies hindering search and rescue operations at sea by NGOs, suspension of returns to Libya, making cooperation with Tunisia conditional on human rights guarantees, and requiring individual assessments prior to any return.
With regard to the Memorandum of Understanding between Italy and Albania, Ms Mijatović again warned of the lack of “adequate human rights safeguards”.
The report also expresses concern about the situation of women’s rights, where there is a gap between the legal framework and the reality, which is still marked by regional disparities, gender stereotypes, shortcomings in victim support services, etc.
“Criminal law should also be amended to base sexual violence offences, including rape, on the notion of freely given consent”, recommends the Commissioner, who calls for the establishment of a “National Human Rights Institution”, the extension of legislation to protect the rights of LGBTI people and to fully decriminalise defamation and ensure that lawsuits are not used as SLAPPs.
Links to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/a5t
Link to the Italian authorities’ response: https://aeur.eu/f/a5u (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)