Italy now recognizes the crime of femicide and punishes it with life in prison
ROME (AP) — Italy’s parliament approved a law Tuesday that introduces femicide into the country’s criminal law and punishes it with life in prison.
The vote coincided with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, a day designated by the United Nations General Assembly.
The law won bipartisan support from the center-right majority and the center-left opposition in the final vote in the Lower House, with 237 votes in favor.
The law, backed by the conservative government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, follows a series of murders and other violence targeting women in Italy. It includes tougher measures against gender-based crimes, including stalking and revenge porn.
High-profile cases, such as the 2023 murder of university student Giulia Cecchettin, have played a key role in public outcry and debate over the causes of violence against women in Italy’s patriarchal culture.
“We have doubled funding for anti-violence centers and shelters, promoted an emergency hotline and implemented innovative education and awareness activities,” Meloni said Tuesday. “These are concrete steps forward, but we will not stop there. We must continue to do much more, every day.”
Although the center-left opposition supported the law in parliament, it stressed that the government’s approach only addresses the criminal side of the problem and leaves aside economic and cultural divisions.
The Italian statistics agency Istat has recorded 106 femicides in 2024, including 62 committed by partners or former partners.
The debate over the introduction of sexual and emotional education in schools as a way to prevent gender-based violence has become heated in Italy. A proposed government law would ban sex and emotions education for primary school students and require explicit parental consent for any lessons in high school.
The ruling coalition defended the measure as a way to protect children from ideological activism, while opposition parties and activists called the bill “medieval.”
“Italy is one of seven countries in Europe where sex and relationships education is not yet compulsory in schools, and we demand that it be compulsory in all school cycles,” said the leader of the Italian Democratic Party, Elly Schlein. “Repression is not enough without prevention, which can only start in schools. »
