Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - Italy (Ratification: 2000)

Article 3 of the Convention. Worst forms of child labour. Clause (c). Use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs. In its previous comments, the Committee had asked the Government to provide information on the measures taken to prohibit the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the trafficking of drugs, and sanctions envisaged. The Committee noted the Government’s information that sections 73 and 80 of Presidential Decree No. 309 of 1990, as modified by Legislative Decree No. 272 of 2005, penalized a range of activities associated with the illegal drug trade and imposed aggravated sentences for delivery of drugs or psychotropic substances to minors or the offering of drugs in the vicinities of schools or juvenile institutions. The Committee also noted the Government’s information that section 671 of the Penal Code punishes the use of children under 18 years for begging. While noting that provisions exist that generally prohibit, inter alia, the sale of drugs to children, the Committee was concerned that they did not appear to prohibit the use, procuring or offering of a child for such activities. Noting the absence of a reply by the Government on this issue, the Committee once again requests it to indicate whether a provision exists in the relevant legislation which prohibits persons from using, procuring or offering a child for the production and trafficking of drugs and imposes heavier sanctions for the use of children for those activities. If such a provision does not exist, the Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that persons are prohibited from engaging in such behaviour.

Article 6. Programmes of action. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to continue providing information on the various educational programmes and their impact on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that section 1, paragraph 622 of Act No. 296 of 27 December 2006 raised the period of compulsory schooling to ten years as of the 2007–08 school year, thereby raising the age of entry to employment from 15 years to 16 years. The Committee further notes that specific measures under section 9 of the National Collective Work Agreement (CCNL) in the Scholastic Field “Incentive Measures for Projects Regarding Areas at Risk and with Strong Immigration, and Against Scholastic Dispersion” have continued to operate with an annual budget of over 53 million euro. As per this legislation, the Ministry of Education divides the resources between the Regional Scholastic Offices annually, using social and economic indicators after having listened to the workers’ organizations. The regional directors general must indicate (in the collective agreement with the workers’ organizations) the criteria for the schools to receive funding, the length of the projects, the goals in combating scholastic dispersion and the observations to communicate to the Ministry and to the workers’ organizations, favouring “the plurality and the spread of experiences on the territory”. The schools, with reference to the specific context of the area at risk, can receive the funds also by cooperating, thereby better benefiting the geographic area. Particular attention is given to the south, where the rate of scholastic dispersion is higher.

The Committee also notes that in the 2007–13 period, in the scope of actions in the south, the “Competencies for the Development” and “Environments for Learning” national action programmes are planned. They are the result of consistent joint activity, coordination between the central administrations, the regions, social partners and representatives of the service sector. A secondary level intervention of these national action programmes relate to orientation as a strategy in promoting scholastic and training success.

Furthermore, Ministerial Decree No. 19 of 2008 constituted the Inter‑Managerial Group for Scholastic Dispersion, which is aimed at political coordination and other actions regarding scholastic dispersion. Some of the objectives of this group include: the reconstitution of the National Observatory on Scholastic Dispersion; registry experimentation to monitor mandatory school courses and; teacher training to improve pedagogy. With regard to educational programmes, some actions undertaken include hospital and home education, which denote themselves as practical implementations of the right to education. Hospital education covers all grades and guarantees to children the right to education despite their illness. “Street activities”, regulated by a Memorandum of Understanding of 2000 between the Ministries of Education and of Social Solidarity, continue to operate. The “Schools in the Streets and at Risk Areas” project, which makes explicit use of the programmes of local governments funded by Act No. 285 of 1997 (promoting children’s and adolescents’ rights), and the “Street Teachers” programmes in Naples, Padua and Trento, also continue to operate. Since 2000, a central theme is the scholastic integration of foreign minors, whose presence within schools is constantly increasing, and is now considered a characteristic of the Italian education system. The responsibility of the Office for the Integration of Foreign Students, constituted within the Ministry of Education, is to support, strengthen and coordinate the reception and integration of these students. Much attention is given to the right to education and training even for minors who do not have a valid residence permit and for their immersion into classes corresponding to their age.

Finally, the Committee notes that the Hot 114 project was born from the Safer Internet Project of the European Commission favouring the safe use of the internet and new technologies. Commenced on 1 April 2005, the project permits internet users to signal, anonymously and at all times of the day, either via a web site or a telephone, the existence of child pornography and other content potentially dangerous for children and adolescents. The Italian hotline is a part of the “Inhope” international network of 28, funded in part by the European Commission. In two years of activity, over one thousand notifications have been received of which: 59.4 per cent relate to the web; 20 per cent to email; 14.2 per cent to file sharing; and 5.5 per cent to chatlines. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on these and other educational programmes, and their impact on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour.

Article 7, paragraph 2. Effective and time-bound measures. Clause (b). Direct assistance for the removal of children from the worst forms of child labour, and for their rehabilitation and social integration. Child victims of trafficking. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to continue providing information on the number of children withdrawn from trafficking and rehabilitated.

The Committee notes in the Government’s report that in April 2007, the Ministry of Rights and Equal Opportunity instituted the Government Actions Against Trafficking in Human Beings Coordinating Committee (Anti-Trafficking Coordinating Committee). The Anti-Trafficking Coordinating Committee forms an Inter-Institutional Table, whose main and most important objective is the elaboration of a National Anti-Trafficking Plan. This National Anti-Trafficking Plan is a holistic programmatic document in which all interventions by the various actors dealing with the phenomenon can be inscribed. Furthermore, general objectives to improve interventions supporting victims, who are minors, of exploitation and trafficking have been determined, including the primordial importance of strengthening financial resources to be made available for assistance and integration, as per section 18 of Decree No. 286/98 (Unified Text on Immigration) and sections 12 and 13 of Act No. 228/2003. In this respect, by virtue of Act No. 17 of 26 February 2007, the same assistance and integration guarantees to victims of trafficking citizens of the EU who are in a “situation of grave and imminent danger”, as per section 18 of the Unified Text on Immigration, has been extended from the previous reference limiting such guarantees to citizens of “Third Countries”.

To intensify the prevention and combating mechanisms of child prostitution and the sexual exploitation of minors, the Ministry of the Interior created the Observatory on Prostitution and its Related Criminal Phenomena (Observatory on Prostitution), whose duty is to study all forms of assistance to victims and to formulate opinions and proposals to better them. The Observatory on Prostitution published its first report in 2007, in which it clarifies the connections between trafficking and immigration, and trafficking and prostitution.

The Committee further notes that the National Anti-Trafficking Toll Free number continues to operate under the Ministry of Rights and Equal Opportunity for the social protection of victims of trafficking. In the period from March 2000 to April/May 2006, 11,541 victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation, of which 748 were under 18 years of age (266 in 2006 alone), have been assisted by the provisions of section 18 of the Unified Text on Immigration. The Committee notes that not only has the absolute number of minor victims been growing, so has the relative number (when compared to the total number of victims). It also notes that two-thirds of the minors originate from the Balkan and Black Sea states, and the majority of the rest are from various African states, in particular Nigeria. Recently, there has been a constant increase in the number coming from Romania.

Finally, the Committee notes that the Department for Equality of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers has started partnership initiatives with various Italian and transnational projects, including one in which a national and European monitoring system for trafficking has been discussed and planned. A transnational database of the organizations dealing with the problem has also been discussed in order to strengthen the instruments and good practices offering assistance, social and work integration to victims. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the number of children withdrawn from trafficking and rehabilitated, including those rehabilitated pursuant to section 18 of Decree No. 286/98 and Presidential Decree No. 237 of 2005.

Clause (d). Identifying and reaching out to children at special risk. Street children and child beggars. Following its previous comments, the Committee notes that the Department of Social Policies of the Municipality of Rome created the Centre to Combat Begging of Minors in 2003 in order combat child begging. It is an experimental project in Italy that proposes to receive, in a serene and family like environment, children removed from the streets in order to help their condition of life; it has received the patronage of UNICEF. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the number of children found working in the streets and then rehabilitated and integrated by the Centre to Combat Begging of Minors. It also requests the Government to provide information on other effective and time-bound measures taken to protect street children and child beggars from the worst forms of child labour and the results achieved.

Parts IV and V of the report form. Practical application of the Convention. The Committee notes in the Government’s report that the Postal Police (polizia postale) has an ongoing programme to combat online child pornography. The National Centre to Combat Paedophilia and Child Pornography gathers all notifications, including those from foreign law enforcement authorities and from public and private persons involved in the fight against online child pornography. This Centre must then transmit a constantly updated blacklist of child pornography web sites to the Internet service providers, so that these can prohibit the access to the sites in question, as per certain determined guidelines. From 2001–06, out of the 247,938 web sites visited, 11,769 were confirmed to be of a paedophile nature, 111 were confirmed as being on the national territory and 8,791 notifications were sent to international investigation authorities.

The Committee further notes that the National Anti-Mafia Directorate, whose duty is to coordinate investigations on the national level regarding organized crime, is also responsible for the elaboration and circulation of data regarding the application of Act No. 228/2003 “Measures Against Trafficking in Persons”. Some data gathered for the period ranging from 7 September 2003 to 31 May 2005 include:

(1)   there were 320 criminal proceedings under section 600 of the Criminal Code “Enslavement”, in which 369 victims (111 of them minors) were identified and 947 people investigated (113 of the criminal proceedings are in Rome, covering 279 people investigated and 135 victims, of which 68 were minors);

(2)   in approximately one case out of every ten, proceedings are commenced against unknown authors;

(3)   86 criminal proceedings under section 601 of the Criminal Code “Trafficking and commerce of slaves” were recorded, in which 339 people were investigated and 126 victims identified, of which ten were minors, the majority of which also took place in Rome;

(4)   35 criminal proceedings under section 602 of the Criminal Code “Acquiring and alienating of slaves” were commenced, covering 151 investigated persons and 20 victims, of which four were minors; and

(5)   11 complaints yielded three criminal proceedings for cases related to sexual tourism (abroad).

The Committee requests the Government to continue providing statistics and information on the nature, extent and trends of the worst forms of child labour, the number and nature of infringements, investigations, prosecutions and convictions, including those cases detected by the National Centre to Combat Paedophilia and Child Pornography.