UN Human Rights Council: the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review of Italy to be held in Geneva

From 27 October to 7 November 2014, the twentieth session of the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group will be held in Geneva. During the Session, 14 States, including Italy on 27 October 2014, are scheduled to have their human rights records examined under this mechanism.

In particular, the debate, which could be watched live through UN communication channels, will focus on the efforts Italy has made in fulfilling the recommendations received during the first cycle of the Universal Periodic Review process, which took place on 9 February 2010.

On that occasion, the Italian government received 92 recommendations from 51 States. Among them, Italy has fully accepted 80 recommendations and the Government has committed itself to implementing them by the subsequent four-year period. A very detailed analysis of the state of implementation of the recommendations accepted by Italy (updated to May 2014) can be found in the Italian Yearbook of Human Rights 2014.

Among the most important issues that the Italian Delegation, led by Lapo Pistelli, Deputy Minister of Foreign affairs and International Cooperation, will discuss with the UPR Working Group, there are: immigration and integration policies; rights of refugees and migrants; the struggle against discrimination and racism; ethnic minorities; rights of women and children and violence against women; prosecution, judicial and penitentiary systems; detention conditions; freedom of expression and freedom of religion; the fight against human trafficking and human rights training programmes for police forces.