The Italian parliament has unanimously approved a new law that categorizes femicide – the killing of a woman for gender-related reasons – as a separate crime punishable by life imprisonment. According to BBC, 237 lawmakers voted in favor of this initiative.
The law was passed on November 25, coinciding with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
The concept of femicide had been previously discussed in Italy, but the murder of 22-year-old Giulia Checchetti by her former boyfriend at the end of November 2023 shocked the nation and prompted widespread protests demanding change.
The bill, proposed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, received support from her far-right government as well as opposition lawmakers. From now on, every murder of a woman for gender reasons in Italy will be recorded as femicide.
According to BBC reports, Italy will join Cyprus, Malta, and Croatia as EU member states that have implemented a legal definition of femicide in their criminal codes. Recent police data indicates a slight decrease in the number of women killed last year – 116, of which 106 were reportedly motivated by gender.
Moving forward, such cases will be registered separately and will lead to automatic life imprisonment. The Italian law will apply to murders that are seen as “acts of hatred, discrimination, dominance, control, or subjugation of a woman based on her gender,” as well as cases where the perpetrator commits violence in response to the end of a relationship or restrictions on the woman's personal freedoms.
“Femicides will be classified and studied in real context, they will exist,” said Judge Paola di Nicola, one of the authors of the new law. She was part of an expert commission that analyzed 211 recent murders of women for common characteristics, which ultimately led to the creation of the femicide law.
At the end of October, the Latvian parliament voted to exit the Istanbul Convention, aimed at supporting women who have suffered from violence, after a lengthy 13-hour session of intense debate. However, just a few days later, the parliament decided to postpone the exit from the Istanbul Convention indefinitely. This delay in the legislative review for a year leaves its fate uncertain, as the next parliament may, but is not obliged to, consider unfinished bills from the previous one.