Tech & Rights

From Torture to HIV, Italy Looks to Better Protect the Rights of Detainees

An important international conference at the end of May explored ways to protect the dignity and human rights of detainees.

by Pauline Couble
The Italian NGO Antigone, which has been working to guarantee the rights of detainees for 25 years, is very proud of its contribution to a very important success: the much-awaited designation of a national ombudsman for the rights of people detained or deprived of liberty, a position filled by Mauro Palma, co-founder and former president of Antigone.

The establishment of a national ombudsman has finally provided Italy – rather late in comparison with other European countries – with a National Preventive Mechanism.

The conference was thus a precious occasion to reflect on the role of the National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs) in the guarantee of the full respect and protection of detained persons in all facilities, from prisons to police offices and migrants detention centers.

The role of NPMs in Europe

During the first day of the conference, some European NPMs, including those from England, Norway and Slovenia, as well as delegates of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) and of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT), discussed the topic of how to better ensure the dignity and human rights of detainees – all highlighting the importance of the NPM as a monitoring authority entirely independent of the government.

The reflection was not limited to prisons: for example, Peter Clarke, who carries the role of NPM for the United Kingdom, highlighted the deep significance of issues related to the detention of refugees.

In Italy, the new national ombudsman will face many challenges, as it is a new post that needs to be defined in practice.

Mauro Palma, co-founder and former president of Antigone, will be Italy's first national ombudsman for the rights of the detained.  (Image: Antigone)

It is also important to note that over recent years, to substitute the lack of such a national authority, a system of regional ombudsmen was created to guarantee the rights of detainees in Italy.

Because of this, the national ombudsman will have to coordinate with all these pre-existing regional and local ombudsmen and harmonize the system, bearing in mind that the various guarantors know very well the sets of problems linked to the geographic areas of their respective competences.

The round table that took place during the second day of conference, during which the regional guarantors shared their points of view, was necessary to prevent incompatibilities and contradictions, as well as to better understand the unique problems facing each region.

Urgent issues

During the conference, participants also discussed the problems surrounding detention conditions throughout Italy, for which prompt intervention is needed.

Critical issues include to the protection of the right to health, the scarce development of alternative methods of punishment, police abuse, beatings, and torture, and the continued existence of life sentences and the persistence of OPGs – judiciary psychiatric hospitals, which have been abolished by Italian law but are still open.

In other words: the establishment of the NPM in Italy is an important step forward for the defense of the rights of people deprived of liberty, but there is still a lot to do.

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