Council of Europe: visit to Italy of the Commissioner for Human Rights

The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, since April 2012 Nils Muižnieks (Latvia), carried out a visit to Italy, in the city of Rome, from 3 and 6 July 2012. This is the fifth visits of this institution to our Country. The latest was carried out in May 2011, by the previous Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg.

Similar to the previous one, the current mission has focused on the themes of human rights of Roma and Sinti and of human rights of migrants and asylum seekers. Moreover, the Commissioner has decided to take into consideration other two crucial topics with regards to the respect of human rights in Italy: the functioning of the judiciary and the length of court proceedings.

At the end of the visit, the Commissioner has commented, in a press conference, that the Italian Government has been giving signs of a shift in policy, which suggests that there may be an opportunity to finally stop and reverse the erosion of human rights standards in the Country. According to Muižnieks, what Italy needs now is for these signs to be transformed into concrete, unambiguous policies and actions.