Mr Roberto Maroni
Ministero dell’Interno
Piazza del Viminale n.1
00814 Roma - ITALY

Dear Minister Maroni

3 March 2010

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), an international public interest law organisation engaging in a range of activities aimed at combating anti-Romani racism and human rights abuse of Roma, writes in order to express grave concern at the proliferation of evictions of Roma and Sinti which have taken place in Italy over recent months. The ERRC is aware of and concerned about the evictions in various Italian municipalities. Evictions in Milan are particularly troubling, due to the sheer numbers and seeming systematism, coupled with a lack of planning and solutions for the people who are evicted. In Milan over twenty evictions have taken place in the first two months of this year alone. These evictions have involved over 900 individuals, with some people being evicted more than once in this very short period. The majority of them have been evicted numerous times over the past two years.

The ERRC has carried out detailed research and monitoring of evictions in Milan over the past months. We note, though, that many of the following worrying features of the evictions in Milan are common to evictions elsewhere in Italy (for example in Rome, Pisa and Sesto Fiorentino):

•    Residents are given no warning of impending evictions.
•    No papers whatsoever about the evictions are produced by the police officers carrying

out the evictions.
•    Police officers often out-number the people they seek to evict, even when that number

includes a significant proportion of children and even some people with disabilities.
•    Some cases involve police abuse (physical and verbal).
•    Evictions often take place very early in the morning.
•    Evictions have taken place with alarming frequency over the winter months, when

weather conditions pose a threat to health and survival.
•    Dwellings and other property are arbitrarily destroyed.
•    The majority of those evicted are not offered alternative accommodation. On the rare

occasion that alternative accommodation is offered, it is generally inadequate, not least

because it necessitates the splitting up of family units.
•    Some children have been forced to stop attending school (most notably following the

eviction from Via Rubattino on 19 November 2009).

The evictions of Roma and Sinti which have taken place over recent months are illegal and all breach many or all of Italy’s obligations under international law, most notably onhousing and property rights, rights regarding personal integrity and education and on the prohibition of discrimination, including:

1.    Housing and property rights:

a.    Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), under which Italy has undertaken to ‘recognise the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions’ and to ‘take appropriate steps to ensure the realisation of this right’. In this respect, the ERRC reminds the Italian government that the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (‘CESCR’) has made very clear that forced evictions are a prima facie violation of the right to adequate housing. In each and every one of the forced evictions known to the ERRC every single procedural safeguard identified by the CESCR has been ignored. These basic safeguards include:

(a) An opportunity for genuine consultation with those affected; (b) Adequate and reasonable notice for all affected persons prior to the scheduled date of eviction; (c) Information on the proposed evictions, and, where applicable, on the alternative purpose for which the land or housing is to be used, should be made available in reasonable time to all those affected; (d) Especially where groups of people are involved, government officials or their representatives should be present during an eviction; (e) All persons carrying out the eviction should be properly identified; (f) Evictions should not to take place in particularly bad weather or at night unless the affected persons consent otherwise; (g) The provision of legal remedies; and (h) The provision, where possible, of legal aid to persons who require it in order to seek redress from the courts.1

b.    Article 27 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires that Italy take appropriate measures to assist parents to implement the right to an adequate standard of living and to provide, in case of need, material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing and housing.2

c.    Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects personal property rights.

d.    Article 31 of the Revised European Social Charter, which provides for the right to housing and by which Italy has undertaken to take measure designed: - to promote access to housing of an adequate standard; - to prevent and reduce homelessness with a view to its gradual elimination;

- to make the price of housing accessible to those without adequate resources.

2.    Rights to personal and familial integrity

a.    Article 16 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides that no child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy or family.

b.    Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment to which evictees have been subjected, both during the eviction processes and in the dreadful living conditions of most following evictions.

1 General Comment No 7, para. 15, E/1998/22, annex IV, 16th Session.

c.    Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which enshrines the right to family and private life.

3. Education
a.    Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
b.    Article 2 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

4. Discrimination

a.    Article 5(e)(iii) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, by which Italy undertakes to ‘prohibit and eliminate racial discrimination in all of its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone ... to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the ... the right to housing’.

b.    Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the jurisprudence on which directs particular protection for Europe’s Romani minority.

c.    Article E of the Revised European Social Charter which prohibits discrimination in the exercise of rights enshrined in that Charter.

d.    Various articles of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

The ERRC considers not only that evictions are manifestly illegal; but also that they are carried out in ways which seem designed to cause maximum distress to the evictees.

The ERRC asks that an end is put to the practice of illegal evictions and that adequate alternative accommodation, viable options for schooling and other essential support is provided to evictees, many of whom are either homeless or living in extremely precarious conditions.

                                                                        Yours sincerely

                                                                        Robert Kushen

                                                                        Managing Director