While recourse to the judicial authorities is guaranteed for fundamental rights and in a number of migration/specific issues, protection of collective and diffused interests which may be of great relevance to migrants’ individually and as a group but which may with difficulty be actionable through the judiciary (typically issues which related to discrimination or decrees and orders by local authorities which hit individuals belonging to specific categories) can best be addressed by non or quasi judicial bodies who, in various ways, monitor, supervise or check the activities of the Public Administration or of private agents.

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While recourse to the judicial authorities is guaranteed for fundamental rights and in a number of migration/specific issues, protection of collective and diffused interests which may be of great relevance to migrants’ individually and as a group but which may with difficulty be actionable through the judiciary (typically issues which related to discrimination or decrees and orders by local authorities which hit individuals belonging to specific categories) can best be addressed by non or quasi judicial bodies who, in various ways, monitor, supervise or check the activities of the Public Administration or of private agents. Such bodies can act on their own initiative or on request by private citizens or significantly of groups, associations and civil society organisations which may have the knowledge and means to raise, collectively., issues which can realistically not be raised individually.

At local level Ombudsmen have been  created especially during the 90s at Municipal, Regional ad Provincial levels. The legal basis for their creation can be found in Art 97 of the Constitution which states the key standards in the work of the Public Administration, and in nationals laws L.241/1990, Law 127/1997 and the Legislative Decree 267/2000.

The Ombudsmen (“Difensore Civico”) are competent to monitor acts of the Public Administration authority to which they are attached. It is an institution for the protection of the rights of citizens and others entitled by national and local laws and regulations (these provisions are to be interpreted broadly, in the light of the constitutional and national laws on non discrimination and fundamental rights, so as to include migrants, and others who are interested by the specific actions of the institution to be monitored). The local Ombudsmen are competent to monitor acts of the relevant local authorities and of the bodies representing State Administration in the area Ombudsmen are territorially responsible for until a national Ombudsman is instituted. The statutes creating their offices provide for the office’s impartiality, transparency and independence from the Administration. In most cases Ombudsmen are elected by the provincial or Regional or Municipal executive branch of local government. The services of the local Ombudsmen are free of charge and covered by the secrecy rule in terms of protecting the privacy of the applicants or of others involved.

Their powers usually include the possibility to

• intervene in case of dysfunction of the relevant Public Administration body,
• promote mediation in controversies between individual and Public Administrators,
• protect rights and entitlements to efficient, correct, impartial Public administration services,
• request information about delayed or lacking action by the Administration etc..

It is not within the Ombudsmen powers to legally present individuals in judicial proceedings against the Administration or substitute for the ordinary or administrative judiciary.

Their role is important in relation especially to migrants’ integration and to redress situations where diffused  and/or collective interests and rights may be infringed by administrative acts of the P.A. a local level. For instance, documented cases relate to Municipal Ordinances which aimed at stopping individuals on the basis of their ethnic origin or descent from applying to jobs in municipal authorities; or to apparently non discriminatory ordinances about the use of public facilities, such as parks or assembly points de facto used by easily identifiable groups of migrants (for instance, an ordinance prohibiting sitting on public benches in public parks for groups of people of more than 4 persons and for periods above half an hour in a specific area where park benches where legitimately used for family gatherings by groups of immigrants from a  specific country).

The Single Act on immigration institutes the Territorial Council on immigration at Provincial level, which have a co-ordination and reference institution in the National Consultative Body on Migration.  In the territorial Councils, the State, Regional governments, Provincial, Municipal authorities associations active on migration issues or to sustain migrants, organisations representing workers and employers are represented. The Councils’ goal is to analyse and respond to the local needs  and promote intervention on issues relating to migration, including integration of migrants on the basis of the laws in force.

On issues relating to Equal Opportunities, especially on gender issues, a National Commission on Equal Opportunities has been created in 1990, situated within the Office of the Prime Minister. The Commission provides a number of services, such as local centres on the national territory and has been at the forefront  of action at Parliament and other levels to promote and uphold women’s rights including rights of migrant women. 

Analysis provided by: Antonella C. Attardo PhD (History of Law), Italy.

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