PERMANENT MISSION OF SLOVENIA TO THE UNITED NATIONS AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN GENEVA

Rue de Vermont 37-39, CH - 1202 Geneva

Tel.: +41/22/716 1780, Fax: +41/22/738 6665

UPR of ITALY

Mr. President,

We commend Italy's commitment to the promotion of human rights and its support for the international human rights mechanisms. We welcome the positive developments in fighting gender based and domestic violence, in particular the amendments to the criminal code and the launch of the campaign "Recognize violence" and in this regard we urge Italy to continue these efforts.

We further commend Italy's efforts to combat discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.

My delegation would also like to address the rights of the Slovenian minority in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region protected under international law as well as under Italian domestic laws. We note with interest the establishment of a Permanent Institutional Panel on issues concerning the Slovenian minority to strengthen cooperation with Slovenian minority and to identify ways to reinforce their rights. What measures has Italy taken or is going to take to ensure the full realization of Slovenian minority rights within the local government reform?

While noting the establishment of the regional register of Slovenian minority organizations and regional fund to support the Slovenian minority, we would like to highlight the importance of systematic funding for the protection of the Slovenian minority.

We would like to recommend to the Italian Government to adopt the appropriate measures to ensure the full implementation of Article 26 of the Law no. 38/2001 on facilitation of the election of candidates belonging to the Slovenian minority, also in light of the present institutional reforms. We would also like to recommend to the Government to continue to fully implement the legislative provisions guaranteeing oral and written use of Slovenian language in public administration, public life and as teaching language at schools.

Thank you.

Questions from Slovenia to Djibouti

A559

2014-10-27

Valeriano De Castro

Ministrstvo za zunanje zadeve