Italy calls for reassessment of appointment of UN experts; Cornado, “full guarantee of impartiality”

Ambassador Cornado, explained that Special Procedures did not refrain from severely criticizing “a merely draft law-decree not yet even presented for discussion to a meeting of the Council of Ministers” of Italy and stressed the decision of the Special Procedures to send such a Communication “in a very inappropriate time, just some days before the last European elections. In addition, the text was leaked appearing on Italian media before the UN official release”, stated the Italian Mission on its web site.

Acting in this way, the Ambassador said, “the Special Procedures fuelled a fired political debate on the merits of Italy’s longstanding commitment to the whole United Nations system and, particularly, to the Human Rights Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.”

Ambassador Cornado therefore underlined the importance for mandate holders of special procedures to inspire their behaviour “by the utmost ethical and professional standards, principles that have not been respected in this particular case”. (@OnuItalia)