Italian parliament unanimously votes to make femicide a crime

MPs in the Italian parliament voted unanimously to adopt the crime of femicide (murder of a woman due to gender) as a separate law punishable by life imprisonment.

In a symbolic move, the bill was approved on the day dedicated to the elimination of violence against women worldwide.

The idea of ​​passing a law against femicide in Italy had been discussed before, but the murder of Giulia Cecchettin by her ex-boyfriend was a tragedy that shocked the country.

In late November 2022, the 22-year-old was stabbed to death by Filippo Turetta, and Turetta wrapped his body in bags and threw it by the lake.

The murder was making headlines until he was caught, but the strong reaction from Giulia’s sister Elena lasted.

He said the killer was not a monster but the “healthy son” of a deeply patriarchal society. These were the words that galvanized crowds across Italy demanding change.

Two years later, MPs voted for a law on femicide after a long and hotly debated session of parliament. This makes Italy one of the very few places to classify femicide as a separate crime.

The law, introduced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was supported by opposition MPs as well as his own far-right government. Many wore red ribbons or red jackets today to commemorate victims of violence.

From now on, Italy will record every murder of a woman committed because of her gender as a femicide.

Judge Paola di Nicola, one of the authors of the new law, stated the importance of the law and said, “Femicides will be classified, examined and exist in their real context.” he said.

She was part of an expert commission that examined 211 recent femicide cases for common characteristics and then drafted the femicide law.

“To say that such crimes are motivated by angry love or strong jealousy is a distortion using romantic, culturally acceptable terms,” ​​argues the judge, surrounded by research from his home in Rome.

“This law means that we will reveal for the first time in Europe the true motivation of the perpetrators, which is hierarchy and power.”

Italy will now join Cyprus, Malta and Croatia as EU member states Those who introduced a legal definition of femicide into the penal codes.

There is no globally accepted definition of femicide, making statistics difficult to count and compare.

Italian law will apply to murders that are “an act of hatred, discrimination, domination, control or subjugation of the woman as a woman” or committed because the woman broke off a relationship or “restricted her individual freedoms”.

Latest police data in Italy shows the number of women killed last year fell slightly to 116; 106 of them are said to be due to gender. In future, such cases will be recorded separately and will automatically trigger life imprisonment as a deterrent.

Gino Cecchettin is not sure that such a law will save his daughter: In any case, her murderer was sent to prison for life.

But he thinks it’s important to identify and discuss the problem.

“Previously, many people, especially from the center and the far right, did not want to hear the word femicide,” Mr Cecchettin told the BBC. “This is a world now where we can talk about it. It’s a small step, but a step nonetheless.”

His focus is on education, not legislation.

Following Giulia’s murder, her father says he “looked very intensely at what was going on around me” and then decided to set up a foundation in Giulia’s name to prevent the suffering of her family.

“I wanted to understand what happened [Filippo’s] Gino Cecchettin explained. “He was a student, a beloved son. Like a normal man.”

What he found, he says, was a society filled with stereotypes about women, notions of male superiority, and young men struggling to manage their emotions.

Her daughter’s ex-boyfriend stabbed her to death in a pre-planned attack because she refused to get back together with him.

Mr Cecchettin is now touring Italian schools and universities to talk to young people about Giulia and respect.

“If we give them the right tools to handle their lives, they won’t behave like Filippo, they will probably behave in a different way. They won’t stick to the Superman or Macho Man model,” he hopes.

However, it was not easy to introduce these ‘tools’ into schools in the form of compulsory emotional and sexual education courses. Far-right MPs have resisted everything except optional sex education classes for older children. The Cecchettin Foundation wants these to be mandatory and to start as early as young people have access to the internet.

The femicide law also has its critics.

When the bill was first introduced earlier this year, one group called it “poisonous meatballs.”

“There is no lack of protection, there is no legal gap to fill,” says Valeria Torre, a law professor at the University of Foggia.

He believes that the new definition of femicide is too vague and will be difficult for judges to apply.

Additionally, since most women murdered in Italy were killed by their current or former partners, it would be difficult to prove that gender was the reason for the murder.

“I’m afraid the government wants to convince people that it is doing something to address the problem,” he told the BBC. “What we really need is more economic efforts to address this problem…to tackle the inequality problems in Italy.”

Even those who support legislation against femicide agree that it must be accompanied by much broader measures against gender inequality.

Italy’s problems on this front are currently on display at the Patriarchal Museum in Rome, a thought-provoking new exhibition.

Italy currently ranks 85th on the Global Gender Gap Index; this is almost the lowest level among all EU countries; To name just one thing, just over half of all women are employed.

“For us, the way to combat violence against women is to prevent violence, and to prevent violence we must build equality,” says Fabiana Costantino of Action Aid Italy, which created the temporary museum to imagine a day when male domination is a thing of the past.

Exhibits include a speaker that makes cat noises and a room where the names of women murdered by men are projected onto the wall.

“There are many forms of violence like the pyramid,” says Fabiana Costantino. “To eradicate the problem in its worst form, femicide, we need to destroy the base.”

Tuesday’s massive parliamentary session ended in Rome late in the evening with a ruling party lawmaker’s final speech that violence against women “will not be tolerated, will not go unpunished”.

The law was approved by all 237 MPs and was met with applause.

“This shows that our country has a common political will to combat violence against women,” says Judge Paola di Nicola, acknowledging that there is still a long way to go.

“This shows that Italy is finally starting to talk about the deep roots of violence against women. The first effect is to get the country to discuss something it has never confronted before.”

Additional reporting from Giulia Tommasi