A/HRC/4/19/Add.4 page 10 B. Legislation on and policies regarding the Roma and Sinti community 13. Although there are no precise data available, official estimates indicate that there are between 120,000 and 150,000 Roma and Sinti in Italy. Approximately 50 per cent are Italian citizens, while most of the remaining are Roma from the Balkans and, increasingly, from Romania. Roma holding Italian or EU citizenship have the same rights and duties as any other citizens while the non-EU Roma are subject to immigration laws. Local authorities have the primary responsibility for addressing their situation, particularly the improvement of the living conditions of the non-Italian Roma population. 14. Roma and Sinti, usually referred to by the authorities as Travellers or nomads, have not been the subject of a comprehensive national law or policy, but of various legislative initiatives at the regional or local level on the protection of their culture.9 Under the “Norms for the protection of historical linguistic minorities”, Roma and Sinti have not been recognized as a historical linguistic minority.10 15. The Government acknowledged the need to adopt comprehensive legislation and policies addressing the specificity and needs of this population, as well as the need to reinforce the existing ad hoc solutions and pilot projects in cooperation with civil society. Proposals before the Senate for the “Acknowledgment and protection of the Roma people, Sinti and Travellers minorities” and the “Acknowledgement and protection of the Roma, Sinti and Travellers populations and safeguard of their cultural identity” have recently been introduced. In October 2006 a working group was established at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which drafted a document based on all recommendations regarding Roma and Sinti from the different international bodies which is intended to serve as the working basis for a comprehensive bill. A recently established inter-ministerial working group is elaborating a draft bill on the rights to non-discrimination, recognition of specificity and protection of the members of the Roma, Sinti and Travellers communities. The Ministry of Labour, Social Solidarity and Health has adopted a National Plan against Poverty and Social Exclusion that for the first time includes the Roma, Sinti and Travellers as a beneficiary group. C. Special agreements with religious communities 16. The largest religious group in Italy, according to various estimates, are the Roman Catholics (97 per cent), followed by the Muslims (1.5 per cent); there are 363,000 Protestants, 230,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses, 30,000 Buddhists and 30,000 Jews in Italy. 9 Since 1984 various regions have promulgated laws for the protection of the culture of Roma and Sinti, such as: Veneto, Lazio, the Autonomous Province of Trento, Sardinia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Lombardy, Liguria and Piedmont. 10 This law, adopted in 1999, protects the language and culture of the Albanian, Catalan, German, Greek, Slovenian and Croatian populations as well as those of the French/Provençal-, Friulan-, Ladino-, Occitan- and Sardinian-speaking communities. (Law No. 483/1999).