Bodies for the promotion of equal treatment (Article 13 Directive 2000/43)

• Author: Favilli, Chiara
• Pages: 57-63

57

7BODIES FOR THE PROMOTION OF EQUAL TREATMENT (Article 13 Directive

2000/43)

a)Body/bodies designated for the promotion of equal treatment irrespective of

racial/ethnic origin according to Article 13 of the Racial Equality Directive

The requirement to introduce a body for the promotion of equal treatment is covered in

Article 7 of Legislative Decree 215/2003, transposing Directive 2000/43/EC. The decree

establishes an ‘office’ within the Department for Equal Opportunities of the Presidency of

the Council of Ministers. According to Article 7(1), the promotion of equal treatment and

the elimination of any sort of discrimination on grounds of racial and ethnic origin are the

general and exclusive tasks of the office. UNAR’s remit has been extended to cover all

grounds of discrimination by a ministerial directive (an internal act of the Government

assessing the specific tasks of each Government department) issued in 2010 and

renewed in 2012. It is not clear if this extension will be confirmed by the next

Government.

The director of the office is appointed by the Prime Minister or by a minister on his behalf

(Article 7(4) of Legislative Decree 215/2003). Its internal organisation is set out by a

Prime Minister’s Decree adopted on 11 December 2003 (Costituzione e organizzazione

interna dell’Ufficio per la promozione della parità di trattamento e la rimozione delle

discriminazioni, di cui all’art. 29 della legge comunitaria 1° marzo 2002, n. 39). The

office fulfils two services: one devoted to actions against discrimination; the other

devoted to research and relations with other institutions.

According to Article 3 of the Decree, 21 officials shall be employed, including one general

executive, one executive for each service and 18 officials. Moreover, other officials may

be recruited, seconded either from other Prime Minister’s departments (up to a maximum

of five), or from other Government departments. This includes judges, state attorneys,

experts and advisers without civil servant status (up to a maximum of five) (Article 7(5)

of Legislative Decree 215/2003). Currently, none of the three directors is officially in

post, and only two external experts are working at UNAR. In January, the Government

appointed Luigi Manconi, currently an MP and previously a professor of sociology, who

has written books on racism, as General Director. He took office on 24 March 2018, when

he was no longer an MP, fulfilling the role without remuneration.

UNAR’s competences include assistance to victims of discrimination in pursuing their

complaints in judicial or administrative proceedings and surveys on discrimination, but

without infringing on the prerogatives of the judicial authorities.

b)Political, economic and social context for the designated body

In Italy, there is a general lack of interest regarding the equality body and regarding

bodies dealing with human rights in general. No independent body has been designated

to deal with discrimination (not even on the grounds of gender) or human rights. On the

contrary, there appears to be sharp hostility, judging from recurring questions asked by

Members of Parliament to the Government, sometimes including requests to close UNAR

or to limit its remit to race and ethnic origin, as required by Legislative Decree 215/2003.

There is no evidence of a popular debate on the designated body, which is not even

known about by most people, even those who are more supportive of equality and

diversity. UNAR took centre stage in the national media only recently, when a scandal on

its allocation of funding was discovered, in addition to one previous occasion when an MP

reacted to a letter sent by UNAR’s director asking for more balanced speeches when

dealing with migrants. As far as equality and diversity in general are concerned, the

popular debate has mostly been influenced by hostility against migrants. In particular,

there is an increasing trend to link crimes committed by migrants to the general policy