Torture, ill-treatment and accountability of the police
XV legislature also left unchanged the gaps on the implementation of the Convention United Nations Convention against Torture (CAT): Italy is without a specific crime of torture in the Penal Code and several parties were authoritatively reported the effects of this inadequate legal framework on the possibility that the police actually meet its function.
The risk of impunity is worsened by the lack of forms of identification individual police officers during the operation of public policy and the absence of independent monitoring bodies. Italy has not yet adopted a national institution of human rights monitoring and an independent check on the police and has not yet ratified the Optional Protocol to CAT, which requires the adoption of mechanisms prevention. This bleak picture is
years reported by Amnesty International (AI) to the competent authorities and in 2007 was again the subject of the recommendations of the UN Committee against Torture.
Genoa G8 2001:
ongoing proceedings were ongoing processes for the violence committed during the G8 in 2001 by police officers, medical personnel and prison officers, complained in those days, and emerged later.
In March 2007, the European Court of Human Rights declared admissible the application filed in the case of Carlo Giuliani, who was shot dead by a policeman during the protests. The investigation in Italy was closed in May 2003, when the judge for preliminary investigations had determined not to proceed against the officer because, according to the court, they had fired in self-defense and the trajectory of the bullet was deflected by a rubble launched by a protester.
In the process the violence against protesters nell'irruzione 93 in the "school Diaz (Diaz school complex-grazing Pertini) are charged 28 officers and police officers, including Francesco Gratteri, currently Director of the central management of the State Police Crime and John Luperi, now head of a department of the AIS (ex Sisde). During the hearings have occurred in recent months have revealed shocking evidence relating to alleged violence and were described their effects on the lives of victims. At the hearing on June 13, 2007, a police officer accused in the process, unlike stated earlier, has admitted having witnessed serious violence perpetrated by agents during the raid and called the memory of a girl with serious head injuries, he having to lie on the floor in a pool of blood. On July 6, 2007 were submitted recordings of telephone communications between the police officers involved in operations and the operations center 113. In one of these, reported in the media, you hear a police officer said: "I was in charge ticks (...) (...) so we hope you all die one is already 1-0 for us ... ". Other telephone calls refer to the wounded during the raid on the school.
The same process occurred irregularities in the preservation of key evidence to establish liability of the police. At the hearing on January 17, 2007 we have learned is that the Molotov cocktails, bring According to the prosecution on the school by police to justify the arrests, had disappeared while they were seized, some days after the police headquarters in Genoa, said that may have been destroyed "by mistake". Also revealed evidence that led, in March 2008, at the request of trial for incitement to false testimony by Gianni De Gennaro, Chief of Police at the time. The preliminary hearing during which it will be decided on the trial will begin June 16. Gianni De Gennaro has been Head of Cabinet of Minister Amato and was recently appointed Director of Information Security (coordinating the intelligence services).
In the process for the violence in the prison of Bolzaneto defendants are among 45 police officers and officials (including then vice Quaestor of Genoa Alessandro Perugini), agents and police officers and prison doctors to violence against more than 250 protesters passed from jail under arrest or detention. In March 2008, prosecutors presented their requests to the court, with a significant indictment. According to prosecutors, the treatment of people with Bolzaneto was "objective of harassment of all prisoners and for the entire period of their stay at the site" and violated the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment provided by the European Convention on Human Rights humans. In addition to physical violence, prosecutors have deemed offensive to the dignity "of the constraints to hear or speak or shout slogans, songs or patterns glorifying Nazism and fascism in particular." Memories of prosecutors reported that in the absence of a specific crime into criminal, it is difficult to bring back the facts that would constitute torture in the ordinary case. The crimes the defendants are charged: abuse of authority against arrest or detention, abuse of office, abuse, domestic violence, threats, beatings and bodily injury (failure to report to the doctors). Prosecutors have emphasized the absolute necessity of introducing the crime of torture into Italian.
In April and August 2007 a civil court ordered the Interior Ministry to pay compensation of € 5,000 respectively in Marina Spaccini and € 18,000 to Simona Zabetta Coda, who were beaten by police while protesting. The Interior Ministry has appealed both rulings.
Contrary to what is required for AI to prevent the spread of a climate of impunity, none of the officials and defendants in trials has been suspended. Several of them were, in fact, promoted.
The crimes with which they are pursued by the police officers are subject to prescription and the passage of time brings with it the strong likelihood that the processes are terminated without anyone being held criminally culpable, nor in fact punished for acts committed in July 2001.
Val di Susa, 2005: proceeding
In August 2007 the judge for preliminary investigations at the Turin Court rejected the request of the prosecutor to dismiss the proceedings initiated by complaints filed by 20 people, related to acts of violence by the police intervened in Val di Susa in the night between 5 and 6 December 2005. On that occasion, several hundred police officers intervened to evict about 100 people demonstrating against the construction of a high-speed rail link. According to reports, demonstrators were attacked and beaten, some of them during sleep. The prosecution closed its investigation based on asking the filing of the claim that agents accused could not be identified, while the court has requested an additional investigation.
The death of Federico Aldrovandi: proceeding
On 19 October 2007 began the trial of four police officers accused of culpable homicide Federico Aldrovandi, who died in Ferrara, September 25, 2005 after being stopped by four officers. During preliminary investigations, had disappeared and then reappeared in blood samples collected at the place where Federico Aldrovandi died, and appeared altered recordings of telephone calls made to emergency services at night of death. The death of Aldo
Bianzino and Gabriele Sandri
On October 14, 2007 Aldo Bianzino, a carpenter of 44 years, died in prison huts in Perugia, where he was taken into custody two days before he and his companion. The death occurred in circumstances the subject of judicial inquiries. In February 2008 the prosecutor asked for the dismissal of the case, on which he awaits the verdict of the court.
On November 10, 2007 Gabriele Sandri, a boy of 26 years, was killed by a gunshot exploded by an agent of the traffic police, while he was exiting a highway in a car with some friends, with whom was directed to Milan to watch the match of his team away. The case is being investigated by the judiciary.
erosion of human rights in the "war on terror": the choices
Italy in 2007 and first half of 2008 the choice of Italy concerning the respect of human rights in the fight against terrorism have moved along lines similar to those covered in previous years. The policy applied to the expulsion of suspicion and a stubborn reluctance to shed light on the abuses committed in the name of the "war on terror" have characterized the approach of the government authorities. In this context, Italy has also contributed to jeopardize the holding of the international principle that requires the absolute prohibition of torture.
Rendition
The Italian government did not cooperate fully with investigations of international bodies have established specific responsibilities of Italy in renditions (illegal transfer of people from one country to another, usually culminating in arbitrary arrests, disappearances, torture and detention without trial). Three cases of rendition
reported from a survey of the European Parliament called into question Italy: Abu Omar (who was kidnapped in Milan in 2003), Maher Arar (conducted in 2002 to Syria from a CIA flight to Amman airport in Ciampino ) and Abou El Kassim Britel (Italian citizen arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and is still imprisoned in Morocco). The survey, conducted by the European Parliament Temporary Committee (TDIP), January 30, 2007 led to the publication of reporting on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of persons "(rapporteur: Mr. Claudio Fava) according to which between 2001 and the 2005 CIA-linked planes have been at least 1245 times in European countries. The report documented that CIA aircraft have made stopovers in Italy 46 times, reaching 15 airports: Pisa, Rome, Sigonella (Catania), Naples, Bari, Florence, Venice, Palermo, Milan, Brindisi, Cagliari, Catania, Olbia, Genoa, Montichiari (Brescia). Government authorities in charge of intelligence at the time of the survey (the Prodi government: on. Enrico Micheli, then Secretary the Presidency of the Council and on. Enzo Bianco, the president of the Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence) and the previous government of Berlusconi (Gianni Letta, Undersecretary to the Prime Minister then) refused to meet with the commission, lamented the choice by the European Parliament in its resolution of February 14, 2007.
On 8 June 2007 the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) adopted the Second Report of Senator Dick Marty on "secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe Member States". This document also criticizes the decisions of the Italian Government to establish the truth about the kidnapping of Abu Omar.
The case of Abu Omar, Maher Arar, Abou El Kassim Britel
Investigations of the Italian judiciary and the start of the process on the involvement of Italian and U.S. intelligence officials in the rendition of Abu Omar are helping to uncover the truth by means of justice.
On 16 February 2007, Judge Catherine Hinton, granting the request of prosecutors Armando Spataro and Ferdinando Pomarici, has indicted 26 U.S. citizens for more than seven alleged CIA agents and officials of the Earthquakes for kidnapping Egyptian imam Abu Omar, taken in Milan February 17, 2003 and transferred to Egypt, where he was detained arbitrarily and, as he says, tortured. Among the officials Italian indicted, Nicolo Pollari and Marco Mancini, Director and SISMI official at the time of the abduction. The police sergeant Luciano Pironi and journalist Renato Farina, otherwise involved, have bargained punishment, but other officials, for which it is required to store, were subsequently indicted.
Two days before the trial, the then Prime Minister Romano Prodi has brought an action for conflict of powers before the Constitutional Court, arguing that the prosecutors in Milan had invaded the powers of the government, learning of a secret document status and obtaining authorization to intercept telephone fees SISMI. A similar appeal has been lodged against the judge for preliminary investigations. In the two appeals are respectfully requests the cancellation of the request for trial and the decree ordering the trial. Similar procedure has been promoted and opposed to the Government by the public prosecutor.
June 8, 2007, opened the criminal trial, but after a few days, the court decided to suspend it pending the decision of the Constitutional Court, thus accepting a request from Pollari and the other defendants. The suspension is not mandatory, was based on reasons of economy, in view of the potential usability of some evidence after the proceedings constitutional. The Constitutional Court declared admissible the applications and set a hearing for January 2008 was postponed at the last moment apparently in view of an "agreed resolution of the conflict" between the government and prosecutors, not far realizzatasi. Following the hearing for three appeals before the Constitutional Court cited was set for July 8, 2008.
On 19 March 2008 the judge in Milan ruled that the trial for the abduction of Abu Omar had to leave. Restarting the process with the U.S. and Italian agents accused of involvement in this paradigmatic case of rendition is a major step forward for the ascertainment of truth and responsibility. On May 13, 2008 hearing was held during which has been heard of Abu Omar's wife, Ghali Nabila, and the judge admitted to testify Romano Prodi and Silvio Berlusconi. The next hearing is scheduled for May 28.
The accused are all U.S. defaulters and the Minister of Justice during the Fifteenth Legislature, Clemente Mastella, has never responded to the request of the Milan prosecutor's office to submit to U.S. government requests for extradition of the 26 agents, in spite of requests to do so giuntegli by the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and AI, whose organization representing the Minister did not want to meet.
With the above-mentioned resolution of 14 February 2007, Parliament European deplored "the fact that General Nicolo Pollari, former head of SISMI, concealed the truth" and the Commission regretted that the abduction of Abu Omar has jeopardized the investigation into the terrorist network to which Abu Omar was connected. For its part, the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (Pace) has criticized the choice of the Italian government to obstruct the search for truth on the case of Abu Omar by the invocation of state secrets and has criticized the choice of Italy to preserve "at all costs" relations with the U.S..
The European Parliament also deplored the involvement of Italy in the rendition of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen of Syrian descent led a flight to Syria with the CIA to Jordan, which stopped at Ciampino airport on 8 October 2002. In Syria, Maher Arar was detained for a year and tortured repeatedly, long after the release and return to Canada, got an apology and compensation from his government as accadutogli. From publicly available information on the case appears to be conducting an investigation of the Prosecutor of Rome.
surveyed the European Parliament also the case of Abou El Kassim Britel, an Italian national arrested in Pakistan in March 2002 by Pakistani police, interrogated by U.S. agents and Pakistani and later handed over to Moroccan authorities. According to the documentation submitted to the Commission Advocate of Britel, after stopping the Italian Interior Ministry had been in "constant cooperation" with foreign intelligence agencies. Abou El Kassim Britel is still being held in Morocco. The Italian judicial investigation against him were closed without any indictment.
The effects of the expulsion of the anti-terrorism "Pisanu Law" and the intervention of the European Court of Human Rights
Despite the demands of the UN Committee against Torture (Conclusions of 18 May 2007), Italy has remained virtually unchanged the rules contained the expulsion by the Law 155/05, the so-called "Pisanu Law", concerning urgent measures to combat terrorism. They provide for the expulsion of migrants regular and irregular on the basis of a vague definition of the risk they place ("reasonable grounds to believe" that their "stay within the state can help in any way terrorist organizations or activities") and without effective protection against forcible return to countries where they risk torture and other serious violations. The law does not necessarily means that the deportee has been convicted or charged with a crime - of a terrorist nature or not - or that the expulsion is validated by a judge. The appeal against the expulsion did not suspend the execution.
On 28 February 2008 the European Court of Human Rights has definitively annulled the expulsion order against the Tunisian national Nassim Saadi, issued by Italy in August 2006 based on the "Pisanu Law" and then suspended on an interim and urgent by the Court. The latter, in defining the case, held that the reports of AI, which was considered credible, consistent and corroborated by numerous other sources, shows a "real risk" that Saadi would be subjected to torture or ill-treatment if returned to Tunisia. The then Minister Mastella had gone in May 2007 in Tunisia to seek so-called "diplomatic assurances" that Nassim Saadi would not be subjected to torture and ill treatment "assurances" and then produced in the procedure by direct request of the Court not to cancel ' expulsion. Italy also supported, with the support the United Kingdom intervened in the proceedings, that in assessing the risk faced expulsion from the person being subjected to torture and other abuses were to be offset by the risk posed by this. The Court rejected this theory of "balance" and reaffirmed the absolute nature of the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, endangered the principle (in its essence and not only with respect to the issue of expulsion) from the thesis supported by Italy.
Despite repeated requests for AI, the then Interior Minister Amato did not annul the expulsion issued against him by Foued Ben Cherif Fitouri, deported to Tunisia on January 4, 2007 under the rules of the package Pisanu. After arriving in Tunisia Ben Fitouri, which his Italian wife and three children, was detained in secret detention for more than 12 days and then jailed and brought to trial on the basis of the Anti-Terrorism Act of Tunisia. According to information received by AI, he has been subjected to torture and ill-treatment while his wife and his children, in Italy, have discounted the effects of his prolonged absence.
Roma and migrants: discrimination, xenophobia and related measures on the "security"
During 2007 and the first half of 2008, several local and national politicians have used a hate speech against Roma and migrants. During the same period have followed measures avowedly to protect the "security" actually mainly aimed at facilitating the expulsion of EU citizens and undocumented migrants.
Discrimination and Xenophobia
The October 31, 2007 was attacked and killed a woman in Rome of 47 years, Giovanna Reggiani, a Romanian citizen is accused of murder, by some considered to belong to the Roma minority. Episode is immediately followed by statements by politicians local and national, which refers to collective responsibilities of minorities and migrant groups.
In the hours immediately after the crime, the media reported statements by the Secretary of the Democratic Party and former mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni, the second which "prior to entry of Romania into the European Union, Rome was the safest city in the world," and again: "If you are in Europe need to be there certain rules: the first can not be to open the hatches and send thousands of people from one European country to another. "
In an interview on November 4 the next. Gianfranco Fini, president of the National Alliance, said: "Some people do not agree to integrate, why not accept the values \u200b\u200band principles of the society in which he resides and has responded well to the journalist who asked him if he was referring to the Roma: "Yes, I wonder how you can integrate virtually anyone who thinks that the legitimate and not immoral theft, not to work because they must be to do maybe prostituting women, and did not scruple to kidnap children or have children and target it to begging. Talking about integration for those with a 'culture' of this type makes no sense. "In the same period have been reported these statements by the Prefect of Rome, Carlo Mosca:" I'll sign soon the first expulsion orders. The hard line is necessary because in the face of the beasts that you can not respond with the utmost severity ".
On 6 November 2007, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed concern about a climate of intolerance manifested in those days and for the "state of tension against foreign power over the years even demagogic responses to the issues of immigration policy implemented by "the next day the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has warned Italy to the risk of a" witch-hunt "against the citizens of Romania and especially against the Roma.
In the following months have been reported many similar statements by representatives of different political parties of national or local level.
In December 2007 the press reported the allegations of a City Council of the City of Treviso calling for "SS methods for immigrants who causes harm," and more recently a member of the Northern League, said: "Historically, each State against invasion has always used its army to defend themselves. Today, history repeats itself, we are under a different kind of invasion, carried out by different methods, but for the same reasons, or to subjugate others or plunder our laws goods ".
During 2007 and until May 2008 there were violent attacks on Roma camps in several cities, including Appin - Ascoli Piceno (April 2007), Rome (September 2007), Turin (October 2007) and Ponticelli - Napoli ( May 2008). Have also been reported by various media organizations assaults on immigrants from Romania and of other nationalities, including the most recent episodes that have struck in Rome, in the district Pigneto citizens of Bangladesh.
In March 2008, the greasy Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD/C/ITA/CO/15) has expressed concern at the conditions of "de facto segregation" in which they find themselves Roma in Italy, without access to essential services, and for the hate speech of politicians. The Committee has highlighted the common stereotypes of the Roma in public and in the towns, which give rise to discriminatory ordinances. Concern was also expressed over the situation of undocumented migrants.
On 16 May 2008, following the aforementioned arson attacks which occurred in Ponticelli, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights expressed concern over the rise of anti-Roma rhetoric and anti-immigrant in recent months and said that the applicant stigmatization of these groups increases the likelihood of violence.
On 20 May 2008, the European Roma Policy Coalition, of which AI is a part, has urged the Italian authorities to act against the use of anti-Romani statements by Italian politicians and the media and said that Italy racism fueled by anti-Roma rhetoric.
Provisions on "security"
Although the investigation of detention centers for migrants from the Ministry of the Interior, the results of which were advanced cases of the use of scaling possession, any changes during the XV legislature on residence and expulsion of foreigners who do not have considered bringing the legislation to international standards on human rights, but they have introduced restrictions on openly aimed at "security". The bill Amato - Ferrero stalled in Parliament after a few sessions, leaving the so-called Bossi-Fini law virtually unchanged in its most troubling, as the widespread use of detention for expulsion purposes without providing any alternative.
Legislative Decree 32 of March 2, 2008 has introduced restrictions on residence of EU citizens, increasing cases of expulsion. These changes are the result enactment of more legislation in a row, from Decree Law 181 of November 2, 2007 adopted by the Council of Ministers which met in extraordinary session following the murder of Giovanna Reggiani, the decree revoked and then "repeatedly" with amendments in December 2007. Both decrees were criticized by AI and other NGOs for the strong indeterminacy of new grounds for expulsion of EU citizens, in particular the "imperative grounds of public safety," left poorly defined in the standard and thus lacks too much discretion to the authorities called upon, including the prefects. The contents of the emergency decrees were finally merged into the above-mentioned Law. 32/2008 that by improving the original text, introduced the need for validation of the ordinary courts for all purposes of removal. Not remain anchored to certain legal parameters of the extrusion conditions.
During the first Council of Ministers of 21 May 2008 the Berlusconi government in office has approved a set of changes and proposed regulations, which are also nominally related to "security", which impose heavy restrictions and new types of crime which affect mainly immigrants, directly or indirectly.
the same day Interior Minister Maroni was able to announce the introduction of the "crime of illegal immigration, with a rapid procedure for trial and deportation (...) And retention in the CPT up to 18 months in anticipation of a European Directive currently under discussion.
The new measures have been accompanied by various declarations in line with the reported tendency to stigmatize entire groups of people, particularly Roma and illegal immigrants, opposition leader Walter Veltroni said that these measures will largely coincide with those planned by the previous government majority.
The so-called "security package" includes more specifically:
a law which punishes with imprisonment and confiscation of the property who rents a property to an illegal immigrant, giving greater powers to the mayors in the area of \u200b\u200b"public order and security" and makes it an aggravating circumstance of any offense to have been committed by an illegal immigrant;
a bill that proposes to criminalize the irregular entry and residence in Italy and will lead to the maximum time of 18 months in detention centers for the purpose of deportation (now 60 days);
a draft legislative decree which provides for the cancellation of the expulsion of the suspensory, recently attributed to appeal for refugee status, two other draft decrees tightening the rules relating family reunification and residence of EU citizens.
They expressed concern to the regulatory reform many Italian and international non-governmental organizations and the same UNHCR, which stressed that asylum seekers are often forced by the lack of alternatives to enter illegally in the countries where they seek protection, could be accused of committing a crime.
AI is extremely alarmed by the content of these measures, how hasty and propaganda of their enactment and the climate of discrimination which preceded them and accompany them. The criminalization of asylum seekers for illegal entry is also expressly excluded from the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees.
rights of refugees and migrants
minor legislative improvements and risky steps back
Some improvements were made in 2007 in legislation and practice in relation to asylum and migrant children arrived at the border. However, they are now endangered by the reform proposals included in that "security," involved in a framework still lacks a comprehensive law on asylum.
Following the closure of their campaign Invisible in June of 2007, which gathered 50,000 signatures and was divided into more than 200 initiatives in the course of 16 months, has reported some improvements in relation to children arrived in Italy by sea. Among them a drastic reduction in the time of detention of unaccompanied children on arrival, the adoption of rules of identification that still identify with the principle of presumption of lower age in case of doubt and publication of data on arrivals by sea of \u200b\u200bchildren, who have shown their strong presence in those with military jargon, are called "landing" of immigrants. In 2007, children accounted for more than 10.5% of arrivals by sea.
In early 2008, the subject of asylum has been profoundly changed by the entry into force of two decrees issued by the government in November 2007, in implementation of many EU directives, respectively, D. Decree 251/2007 on the status of refugees came into force on January 19, 2008 and D. Legislative Decree No. 25/2008 on asylum procedures, which entered into force March 2, 2008. The two decrees have introduced some important improvements, including the effect of suspending expulsion determined by the submission of the appeal against the refusal of the application (excluding effect since then, with serious risks of forced repatriation of asylum-seeker whose application had been erroneously rejected at first instance).
As mentioned the rule changes proposed in the cited "security" include the deletion of the suspensive effect and therefore represent a dangerous step backward, restoring, just three months after the adoption of new legislation not yet implemented, a situation which the applicant whose application is rejected in the first instance is likely to be repatriated without any screening on risks assumed and therefore in breach the principle of non-refoulement.
Moreover, in case of a general tightening of rules on the detention, minors, especially if the result of undocumented parents, are not protected from risk.
The collaboration between Italy and Libya on immigration enforcement
continued cooperation with Libya on illegal immigration enforcement on the basis of secret agreements and without any conditions were placed on respect for Italy human rights. Libya has not ratified the Convention on refugee status, does not have an asylum procedure and stain it every year for serious violations of the rights of refugees and migrants, including arbitrary detention and violence against migrants detainees, including women. Intense diplomatic relations between the two countries have conducted 29 December 2007 a bilateral agreement that provides for joint maritime patrols through a core operating between Italy and Libya Libyan controlled by means of six vessels of the Guardia di Finanza Italy provided without To clarify what should happen to people, migrants and refugees, rejected by the sea in ships.
Italy has completed and delivered to the Libyan government to Gharyan a structure designed, as specified by the Ministry of the Interior in July 2007, "a school for the training and education of the students Libyan police officers, in the collaboration of the police, " while there is no precise information about the center planned to Kufra and defined by the Ministry of Interior a "health center border."
The letter referred to the then Minister Amato asked questions about Libya in an operation carried out with the collaboration of Italian public security in respect of 190 migrants Sudanese, Eritreans, Ethiopians and other nationalities, including 17 women and cu 3 children, remained unanswered.
With the decree refinancing of the Italian missions abroad, the Prodi government has committed to cooperation with Libya over 6 million and 200 thousand euro. The decree was enacted into law by Parliament on 13 March 2008.
Commerce arms and child soldiers
There is a worrying lack of homogeneity of the rules governing the export of military weapons and small arms for civilian use.
The trade in small arms and small arms (rifles, pistols, ammunition and explosives), the most widely used in conflicts where children are used as soldiers, does not fall under the regulations of Law 185/1990, which contains strict procedural arrangements for the export, import and transit of weapons to third countries for use in war, but is regulated by Law 110/1975, which, in contrast, does not set limits on exports based on the standard of human rights in the country importer and the involvement of the country himself in a civil war or international. It is therefore possible that Italy and admitted selling small arms to private persons or governments of countries where people under 18 years participating in hostilities as part of armies or armed groups. In January 2008, the Secretary General of the United Nations has made public the Annual Report 2007, for the attention of the Security Council, which confirms the recruitment and use of child soldiers in several countries already reported in 2006, including : Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal, Philippines, Uganda and Afghanistan.
An analysis of available data shows that between 2002 and 2007, Italy has authorized the export light weapons and small arms to private individuals or government of the Philippines for € 7,169,863, € 3,189,346 in Afghanistan, and Colombia to € 1,027,196, as well as to private individuals or state in the Democratic Republic of Congo € 179,582, in Nepal to € 18,321, € 10,088 in Uganda, Burundi to € 9,017 and € 1,756 in Chad.
Moreover, despite the high human rights standards provided for by Law 185/1990, is not always the authorization of exports of weapons have actually prevented these end up in the governments of countries where children are used as soldiers. Italy, between 2002 and 2006, has sold weapons to the forces Armed of the Philippines for $ 1.6 million and € 2.3 million € for Colombia.
All this happens in an open and obvious contrast with the commitments made at international level: in particular, during the Italian candidate for the new component to the United Nations Council on Human Rights for 2007-2010, the Italian Government has committed to protect the rights of children, especially children affected by armed conflict and in September 2007, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has presented a special challenge Minor soldier still open, "which highlights Italy's role in countering the use of child soldiers.
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