Italian parliament votes unanimously to criminalize femicide

Deputies in Italy’s parliament voted unanimously to make femicide – the gender-motivated murder of a woman – a distinct law punishable by life imprisonment.

The bill’s approval is symbolic on a day dedicated to ending violence against women around the world.

Italy had previously discussed the idea of ​​enacting a femicide law, but the tragedy of Giulia Cecchettin’s murder by her ex-boyfriend shocked the country into action.

In late November 2023, the 22-year-old woman was stabbed to death by Filippo Turetta, who then wrapped her body in a bag and dumped it by the lake.

The murder had been making headlines before his arrest, but it was the violent reaction from Julia’s sister Elena that endured.

She said the murderer was not a monster but a “healthy son” deeply rooted in a patriarchal society. Those words sent people across Italy taking to the streets to demand change.

Two years later, after a long and heated debate in parliament, MPs voted to pass a law on femicide. This makes Italy one of the very few countries to classify femicide as a distinct crime.

The law was introduced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and has the support of her own far-right government and opposition lawmakers. Many people wear red ribbons or red jackets to honor victims of violence.

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

Judge Paola di Nicola, one of the authors of the new law, said of its importance: “Femicide will be classified, it will be studied in a real context, it will exist.”

She was part of an expert committee that examined common features in 211 recent murders of women before drafting the femicide law.

“It is a distortion to talk about these crimes stemming from angry love or intense jealousy – using romantic, culturally acceptable terms,” ​​the judge argued in the study, which was conducted at his home in Rome.

“This law means we will be the first country in Europe to expose the true motivations of perpetrators, which is hierarchy and power.”

Italy will now join Cyprus, Malta and Croatia as EU members has incorporated a legal definition of femicide into its criminal code.

There is no universal definition of femicide globally, which makes counting and comparing statistics difficult.

Italian law will apply to “acts of hatred, discrimination, domination, control or subjugation towards a woman as a woman”, or murder that occurs when she breaks off a relationship or “restricts her personal freedom”.

The latest Italian police figures show that the number of women killed last year dropped slightly to 116, of whom 106 were allegedly killed because of their gender. In future, such cases will be recorded separately and automatically trigger life sentences to serve as a deterrent.

Gino Checedin was not sure whether such a law would save his daughter: in any case, her killer was sentenced to life in prison.

But he does think it’s important to define and discuss the issue.

“Before, many people, especially in the center and on the far right, did not want to hear the word femicide,” Cecedin told the BBC. “Now it’s a world where we can talk about it. It’s just a small step, but it’s a step.”

His own focus is on education, not legislation.

After Julia was murdered, her father described “investigating very deeply into what was going on around me” before deciding to create a foundation in her name dedicated to preventing others from suffering as his family had.

“I wanted to know what (Filippo) was thinking,” explained Gino Cechetin. “He was a student, a beloved son. Just like a normal person.”

He said he found that society was full of stereotypes about women and male superiority, while young men struggled to control their emotions.

His daughter’s ex-boyfriend stabbed her to death in a premeditated manner when she refused to get back together with him.

Mr Cecedin now tours schools and universities in Italy, talking to young people about Giulia and respect.

“If we gave them the right tools to deal with their lives, they wouldn’t behave like Filippo, they might behave differently. They wouldn’t adhere to a superhuman or macho mold,” he hopes.

But it is not easy to introduce these “tools” into schools in the form of compulsory emotional and sexual education courses. Far-right MPs reject all but optional sex education classes for older children. The Cecedin Foundation wants these measures to become compulsory and start as early as possible, when young people have access to the internet.

Femicide laws themselves have also been criticized.

When the bill was first introduced earlier this year, one group called it a “poisoned meatball.”

“There is no lack of protection, no legal gap that needs to be filled,” said Valeria Torre, a law professor at the University of Foggia.

She believes the new definition of femicide is too vague and difficult for judges to enforce.

Furthermore, since most women killed in Italy are murdered by a current or former partner, proving that the motive was gender will be challenging.

“I’m worried that the government is just trying to convince people that it’s doing something to solve the problem,” she told the BBC. “What we really need is more economic effort on this problem… to overcome inequality in Italy.”

Even those who favor legislation banning femicide agree that legislation must be accompanied by broader measures to tackle gender inequality.

Italy’s problems in this regard are currently at the Museum of Patriarchy in Rome, a thought-provoking new exhibition.

Italy currently ranks 85th on the Global Gender Gap Index, almost the lowest of any EU country, with just over half of the employed women, to name just one.

“For us, the way to fight violence against women is to prevent violence, and to prevent violence we have to build equality,” said Fabiana Costantino of ActionAid Italy, which created the makeshift museum to imagine a day when male dominance will be a thing of the past.

Exhibits include a loudspeaker that plays cat calls and a room with the names of women killed by men projected on the walls.

“Violence comes in many forms, just like the pyramids,” Fabiana Costantino said. “We have to destroy this base in order to tackle the most serious problem, which is femicide.”

Tuesday’s mammoth parliamentary session ended late at night in Rome, with a ruling party lawmaker delivering a final speech vowing that violence against women “will not be tolerated or go unpunished”.

The bill was approved by all 237 representatives and won rounds of applause.

Judge Paola di Nicola said: “This shows that our country has a common political will to combat violence against women.” She also acknowledged that there is still a long way to go.

“It shows that Italy is finally starting to talk about the deep-seated violence against women. The first impact is getting the country to talk about issues it has never faced before.”

Additional reporting by Julia Tomasi

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