Integration Practice and Electoral Rights of Foreigners. An Overview in the Light of the International Law of Human Rights

The extension of electoral rights to legally resident foreigners is one of the key ways to ensure their full inclusion. The recognition of the aforementioned rights constitutes, as can be easily understood, an essential measure to enable them to participate in the decision-making process of actions that affect their daily lives. The aim and purpose of the essay is to examine this important issue in light of relevant international human rights treaties and other instruments adopted at the universal and regional levels, as well as the pertinent practice of international monitoring bodies, particularly the so-called treaty-monitoring bodies. This latter practice is of paramount importance, from which useful indications emerge for countries that have not yet intervened on a regulatory level in this regard, like Italy. Specific attention was drawn in the paper to the European Union legal framework relating to migrants and beneficiaries of international protection, taking into account, in particular, the practice of some European Union institutions (for instance, the Action Plan on integration and inclusion 2021-2027, adopted by the European Commission, and the 2024 Asylum reform).