The State of the World’s Human Rights by Amnesty International is an annual report that provides an overview of regional and global issues with protecting human rights. In its 2023 edition, the report expresses concerns of human rights violation from 2022 and covers over 150 countries. One of the chapters of the report is dedicated to the situation in Italy. 

The main problems raised with respect to Italy in the chapter are: refugees’ and migrants’ rights, discrimination, violence against women with a special part regarding sexual and reproductive rights, workers’ rights, freedom of expression and assembly. The report also briefly mentions economic, cultural and social rights in relation to one of the UN committees and the ongoing climate change.

In 2022, the situation of refugees and migrants in Italy was challenging. Over 1,370 people went missing at sea trying to reach safety. There were 105,140 people who made it safe, including more than 12000 unaccompanied children. It was also a difficult year for Ukrainians seeking shelter from the war. . The authorities granted them priority access to residence permits and a subsistence allowance. The Italian government decided to approve a law with immediate effect to restrict NGOs’ life-saving activities at sea. NGO crews must now request a port for disembarkation and make their way there after each rescue, limiting the possibility of saving more people in one operation. Moreover, reports of labour exploitation among migrant workers persisted, particularly in the agricultural sector, where individuals were often underpaid and forced to live in unsafe, substandard housing.

Discrimination in Italy touches a variety of groups. In 2022, the Italian parliament failed to adopt two important legislations. First bill was supposed to extend the same protections to LGBTI people, women and people with disabilities, as it is available to other victims of hate speech and hate crimes based on racist, religious, ethnic and nationalist motives. The second legislation concerned effective access to citizenship for the children of foreign nationals who were born and/or grew up in Italy. Italian authorities also failed to ensure safety of Roma nationals, which could be seen, when a police officer was placed under house arrest on charges of torture in connection with the case of Hasib Omerovic, a Roma man with a disability who fell from a window of his home near Rome under unclear circumstances during an unauthorized police inspection

Amnesty International also mentions the violations of the rights of women and girls. In 2022, there were 100 killings of women in domestic violence incidents, with 59 killed by their partners or former partners. Also in this field the Italian parliament failed to adopt a bill that would strengthen safeguards to combat violence against women. It is still common for doctors and other medical personnel to deny women access to abortion services.

In the report, it is also mentioned that the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed concern about rising levels of poverty, including child poverty, and the disproportionately high level of absolute poverty among non-nationals, which indicates Italian struggles in this area. The State of the World’s Human Rights by Amnesty International provided us with a full picture of the human rights problems that Italy is facing.