The Council of Europe issued a memorandum by the Commissioner of Human Rights on recent events and legislation in Italy. It was ill received by the government. The Minister of Interior, Roberto Maroni, attacked the report with strawman arguments in parliament, asserting it makes false claims on police brutality.
Police brutality has occurred though. It may not be systematic yet, but it is getting there.

The full memorandum is available in html or pdf.

11. The Commissioner has been concerned for some time by consistent reports establishing that behind individual incidents, occasionally very violent, there was a trend of racism and xenophobia in Italy targeting primarily Roma, Sinti and immigrants from EU or other countries (see also following section). While this Memorandum concentrates on specific measures and policies liable to affect mainly the rights of those people, some broader introductory comments on the need to address that trend seem warranted.
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13. The hostile environment to non-dominant, vulnerable social groups has recently been fostered by statements of certain national and local political figures as well as by a number of mass media in the country. In meetings with the Commissioner representatives of important NGOs deplored an almost total lack of rejection of xenophobic statements by senior politicians. Representatives of Roma and Sinti felt that such lack of reaction, combined with the "security package", had further encouraged violence and hate speech against their communities. They expressed a fairly dramatic need for protection.
    
14. The Commissioner is seriously concerned about the adoption or preparation by the government of severe legislation which is aimed at ensuring "public security" and imposing a firmer control over immigration, including of EU citizens, and over the presence and movement of Roma and Sinti populations (see sections below). While stronger action against individual criminal offenders may be required, including enhanced international judicial cooperation, the swift adoption of broad packages of the sort currently implemented or considered in Italy entails a clear risk of linking insecurity to specific groups of population and of generating confusion between offenders and foreigners. Such risk should be carefully avoided, if one is not to further feed xenophobic tendencies (the "security package" is further discussed in sections III and IV below)
    

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32. The Commissioner is following closely and is deeply concerned at anti-Roma and anti-Sinti manifestations in Italy which have been occasionally extremely violent resulting into setting on fire Roma camps, reportedly without effective protection by the Police which has also carried out violent Roma camp raids. Of particular concern is the support which has been provided to such manifestations, directly or indirectly, by certain domestic, national and local, political forces and figures as well as by certain mass media. No information is as yet available on the conclusion of any effective investigation into such incidents by the competent authorities. During his discussion with the Minister of Interior, Mr Roberto Maroni, the Commissioner expressed his serious concern at this situation.
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36. In this context, the Commissioner notes that by the decision of 7/12/2005 in the case of European Roma Rights Centre v Italy (Complaint No. 27/2004) the European Committee of Social Rights found unanimously that Italy had violated the European Social Charter taken together with the antidiscrimination Article E due to the insufficiency and inadequacy of Roma camping sites, the forced evictions and other sanctions, such as destruction of Roma property, and the lack of permanent dwellings. In the context of this case, the Italian authorities have undertaken before the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers to bring the situation into conformity with the Revised European Social Charter.
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Conclusions and Recommendations

68. The repeated adoption of emergency legislative measures by a Council of Europe member state in order to control migratory movements seems to indicate that the state mechanism is unable to deal effectively with a phenomenon that is not novel and thus should have been dealt with through ordinary legislative or other measures. Moreover, the frequent changes of immigration law act to the detriment of legal certainty, one of the constituent elements of the fundamental principle of rule of law on which the Council of Europe is based.
    
69. The Commissioner is very concerned at the new legislative measures on immigration and asylum which have been adopted or are about to be adopted by Italy. As he informed the Minister of Interior, Mr Roberto Maroni, during his visit, he fears that, despite the authorities' declared intentions, these measures will result in a further social stigmatisation and marginalisation of migrants (including Roma) and in a further rise of anti-immigration and xenophobic climate in the country. The detrimental effects of this legislation on asylum seekers, often obliged to arrive in an irregular manner, is also of special concern to the Commissioner. The authorities' suggestion that the new legislation would not reduce the possibility to apply for asylum should be checked against the practice.
    
70. The Commissioner notes that the impact of restrictive legislative and other measures on irregular migration is much debated, with some experts arguing that they rather ignite in effect irregular migration. He strongly feels that Council of Europe member states should undertake further efforts in order to view and tackle migration as a social, not criminal law, issue. That issue requires comprehensive, long-term and sustainable, national action plans in which host and origin states should work together, having as their priority the effective protection of the human rights of the people who feel themselves obliged to migrate for a better life.
    
71. The Commissioner further notes that, despite a widespread opposite state trend, international law has clearly established the principle that aliens whose only offence is the violation of immigration law should not be treated by transit or host states as criminals or potential criminals. As Article 17, paragraph 3, of the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrants Workers and Members of their Families prescribes, migrants detained for violation of provisions relating to migration should be held, in so far as practicable, separately from convicted persons or persons detained pending trial. Even though Italy is not a State Party to this Convention, the Commissioner considers this text as a reference for the protection of migrants' rights and the need to avoid their criminalisation. He notes with regret the Government's disagreement on this point.
    
72. The Commissioner is particularly concerned at the criminal law amendment by the above-mentioned Law Decree by which the irregular stay of aliens who commit an offence shall be considered as an aggravating circumstance that will lead to the increase of these persons' sentences. This provision may raise serious issues of proportionality and discrimination based on one's immigration status.
    
73. The introduction of those aggravating circumstances and the purported punishment for irregular entry and for letting accommodation to irregular migrants contravenes a well established position in international law that the irregular entry and stay of an alien should be in principle an administrative offence38. Departing from such well established principle is a serious matter indeed.
    
74. In addition, it is to be noted that, as also mentioned during the discussion that the Commissioner had with the President of Italy's National Judges' Association on 19 June, the criminalisation of irregular migration is likely to strain even further the Italian judicial system, which suffers from the systemic problem of excessive length of judicial (including criminal) proceedings and the backlog of cases. In this context, it should be remembered that Italy is the European state with the highest number of judgments (1,715) delivered against it by the European Court of Human Rights from 1999 to 2007. The majority of these judgments (948) concern the systemic problem of excessive length of judicial proceedings. As at 31 December 2007 Italy was the contracting state with the highest percentage (45%) of judgments delivered against it by the European Court of Human Rights and whose execution was supervised by the Committee of Ministers under Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention. The Commissioner recommends that the authorities fully reflect on this additional dimension of the criminalisation of irregular migration and urge them to review, with a view to revoking, the above-mentioned provisions.

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Well worth a read for all Europeans. Italy is not the only case although likely the worst at the moment.