Rome
AP
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Italy’s parliament on Tuesday approved a law that adds femicide to the country’s criminal law and makes it punishable by life imprisonment.
The vote coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, a day designated by the United Nations General Assembly.
The legislation received bipartisan support from the center-right majority and the center-left opposition in the final vote in the lower house, which passed with 237 votes in favor.
The law, backed by the conservative government of Premier Giorgia Meloni, comes in response to a series of murders and other violence targeting women in Italy. This includes tough measures against gender-based crimes including stalking and revenge porn.
High-profile cases, such as the murder of university student Giulia Cecchini in 2023, have been important in sparking widespread public outrage and debate about the causes of violence against women in Italy’s patriarchal culture.
“We have doubled funding for anti-violence centers and shelters, boosted an emergency hotline and implemented innovative education and awareness-raising activities,” Maloney said Tuesday. “These are solid steps forward, but we won’t stop there. We must continue to do much more every day.”
While the centre-left opposition supported the legislation in parliament, it stressed that the government’s approach only dealt with the criminal aspect of the problem, while ignoring the economic and cultural divide.
Italy’s statistics agency Istat recorded 106 femicides in 2024, 62 of which were committed by partners or former partners.
The debate over introducing sexual and emotional education into schools as a way to prevent gender-based violence has heated up in Italy. A law proposed by the government would ban sex and emotional education for primary students and require explicit parental consent for any lessons in high school.
The ruling coalition has defended the measure as a way to protect children from ideological activism, while opposition parties and activists have described the bill as “medieval”.
Elie Schlein, head of Italy’s Democratic Party, said, “Italy is one of seven countries in Europe where sex and relationship education is not yet mandatory in schools, and we are calling for it to be made mandatory in all school cycles.” “Repression is not enough without prevention, which can only begin in schools.”
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