 "Italy inking legislation to make femicide a separate crime")
Italy’s government on Friday backed a draft law that would make femicide a separate crime rather than just a sub-category of homicide.
Under existing laws, aggravating circumstances in the murder of a woman are only recognised if the killer was married or related to the victim.
Under the new draft law, approved by the cabinet a day ahead of International Women’s Day Saturday, femicide is described as an act of discrimination or hate against someone simply because they are a woman.
In a statement, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed the bill as “a new step forward… towards tackling violence against women”.
The draft law was designed to acknowledge the “asymmetry of power between men and women”, Families Minister Eugenia Roccella told journalists after the cabinet meeting.
Opposition parties objected that the government was only addressing part of the problem.
“Once again, the government acts with criminal measures intervening after the violence and femicides, and keeps ignoring the preventive aspect of education,” said the main opposition centre-left Democratic Party.
The interior ministry recorded 113 femicides in 2024, of which 99 were committed by relatives or partners. Of those 99, 61 were killed by the partner or former partner.
In December Filippo Turetta, a 22-year-old student who stabbed to death his former girlfriend Giulia Cecchettin, was jailed for life for the killing.
The November 2023 killing shocked the country and helped reopen the debate over violence against women.
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