Italy’s parliament on Tuesday approved a law that introduces femicide into the country’s criminal law and punishes it with life in prison.
The vote coincided with the international day for the elimination of violence against women, a day designated by the U.N. General Assembly.
The law won bipartisan support from the center-right majority and the center-left opposition in the final vote in the Lower Chamber, passing with 237 votes in favor.
The law, backed by the conservative government of Premier Giorgia Meloni, comes in response to a series of killings and other violence targeting women in Italy. It includes stronger measures against gender-based crimes including stalking and revenge porn.
I’ve spent a few minutes on google during my lunch break. Turns out, it’s as sexist as it sounds actually. Femicide is a crime that uniquely qualifies the victim as a woman, and the perpetrator as a man. In Italy, that specific crime now has a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison if convicted. Prior to today, I assumed that life in prison was the minimum sentence for any murder in Italy, but that was an improper assumption. The mandatory minimum is 21 years for murder in Italy. Femicide now has a higher mandatory minimum.
Par for the course of conservative governments.
Thanks!