By Marina Chiarugi. Translation by Sarah Potter In its Universal Periodic Review, the UN Human Rights Council criticised the policies of the Italian government and the terms of its “security package”. On Tuesday, 9th February, Italy was for the first time the subject of the United Nation’s Human Rights Council’s so-called Universal Periodic Review, a process whereby each of the 192 Member States of the UN is reviewed once every four years to assess their adherence to the principles contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The 92 recommendations made to Italy are concerned with alleged violations that are more or less well known. The reviewers highlighted delays in the introduction of substantial international tools, the most significant of which is the need to incorporate the crime of torture into domestic law. Other recommendations, originating in many European countries and that should not be given room in a report dedicated to a State with a sixty-year tradition of democracy, refer to the independence of the judiciary, the freedom of the press and the concentration of the media. Nevertheless, the main focus of the 47 Member States of the Council were the alarming growth of xenophobia in Italy and the terms of the so-called “security package”. The extent of the discrimination surrounding the crime of illegal entry into the country was widely criticised, along with such aggravating circumstances as the obligation that healthcare workers report illegal immigrants to the police. The Council voiced numerous objections to the policies for integrating the Roma and Sinti communities, including the confrontations during the forced clearing of the camps they lived in; the hate campaigns stirred up by certain right-wing parties; and the strong support by certain elements in the Italian media during the conflicts for the most abject and reactionary positions. This leads the call for the adoption of a campaign of education and awareness that will aim to promote tolerance and integration in schools, sporting contests and, above all, within the police force. The consequences of the treaty between Italy and Libya are also significant, as there is now a serious risk of asylum seekers not having their individual cases examined fully in order to gain the recognised refugee status as is their right. Moreover, the practices brought into being by the Italian authorities have shown themselves to be in direct contravention of the principle of non-refoulement, which compulsorily prevents an individual being returned to a place where their fundamental rights could be threatened. During the Council’s next session, Italy will be called on to respond to these recommendations. We are still waiting, not without a certain amount of disenchantment, to learn of the initiatives that will be put in place to reconcile the policies adopted by Italy with the many provisions of the largest worldwide organisation, charged with protecting human rights.