Italy adds ‘femicide’ to the criminal code to curb violence against women

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has supported a bill to punish ‘femicide’ with life imprisonment.

Italy’s parliament has formally added the crime of femicide – the deliberate killing of women and girls due to their gender – to its criminal code, with a punishment of life imprisonment.

The bill was unanimously approved on Tuesday, marking what Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described as a sign of “political cohesion against the barbaric nature of violence against women”, according to Italian public broadcaster RAI.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 4Chelsea thump Barcelona in Champions League as Man City also lose
• list 2 of 4What are the risks of Afghanistan-Pakistan tensions escalating?
• list 3 of 4Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,371
• list 4 of 4FBI probes Democrats who urged US troops to defy illegal orders

Meloni’s government has backed the bill since its start and supported other legislation to protect women, like anti-stalking laws. Parliament is also debating a bill that prohibits sexual intercourse without “free and actual consent”.

“We have doubled funding for antiviolence centres and shelters, promoted an emergency hotline and implemented innovative education and awareness-raising activities,” Meloni said, according to The Associated Press news agency. “These are concrete steps forward, but we won’t stop here. We must continue to do much more, every day.”

The vote also coincided with the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Italy last year recorded 106 femicides, 62 of which were committed by a partner or former partner, AP reported, citing Italy’s statistics agency.

The numbers are in line with global trends that show nearly two-thirds of female homicides were committed by a partner or family member, according to UN Women.

The persistent problem of violence against women came to national attention in Italy in November 2023 when a 22-year-old university student, Giulia Cecchettin, was stabbed by her boyfriend. He was later sentenced to life imprisonment.

Rights groups in Italy, like the gender-based movement Non Una di Meno, or Not One Less, say that Meloni’s government is too focused on penalties rather than preventing violence.

Italy is one of the few countries in the European Union without mandatory sexual education in its public-school systems, and many programmes require parental consent.

Non Una di Meno said this week that the government must also focus on “sexual and emotional education”, as well as the “economic wellbeing of women”.