Italy now acknowledges the crime of femicide and punishes it with life in jail

ROME — Italy’s parliament on Tuesday authorized a legislation that introduces femicide into the nation’s legal legislation and punishes it with life in jail.

The vote coincided with the worldwide day for the elimination of violence towards girls, a day designated by the U.N. Common Meeting.

The legislation received bipartisan help from the center-right majority and the center-left opposition within the ultimate vote within the Decrease Chamber, passing with 237 votes in favor.

The legislation, backed by the conservative authorities of Premier Giorgia Meloni, is available in response to a sequence of killings and different violence focusing on girls in Italy. It consists of stronger measures towards gender-based crimes together with stalking and revenge porn.

Excessive-profile circumstances, such because the 2023 homicide of college pupil Giulia Cecchettin, have been key in widespread public outcry and debate in regards to the causes of violence towards girls in Italy’s patriarchal tradition.

“We have doubled funding for anti-violence centers and shelters, promoted an emergency hotline and implemented innovative education and awareness-raising activities,” Meloni mentioned Tuesday. “These are concrete steps forward, but we won’t stop here. We must continue to do much more, every day.”

Whereas the center-left opposition supported the legislation in parliament, it careworn that the federal government strategy solely tackles the legal facet of the issue whereas leaving financial and cultural divides unaddressed.

Italy’s statistics company Istat recorded 106 femicides in 2024, 62 of them dedicated by companions or former companions.

The controversy over introducing sexual and emotional training in colleges as a technique to forestall gender-based violence has develop into heated in Italy. A legislation proposed by the federal government would ban sexual and emotional training for elementary college students and require specific parental consent for any classes in highschool.

The ruling coalition has defended the measure as a technique to shield youngsters from ideological activism, whereas opposition events and activists have described the invoice as “medieval.”

“Italy is one of only seven countries in Europe where sex and relationship education is not yet compulsory in schools, and we are calling for it to be compulsory in all school cycles,” mentioned the top of Italy’s Democratic Celebration, Elly Schlein. “Repression is not enough without prevention, which can only start in schools.”