Italy’s parliament on Tuesday approved a law that introduces femicide into the country’s criminal code 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 UN General Assembly.
The law won bipartisan support from the centre-right majority and the centre-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 image-based abuse, also known as revenge porn.
Meloni said: “We have doubled funding for anti-violence centers and shelters, promoted an emergency hotline, and implemented innovative education and awareness-raising activities.
“These are concrete steps forward, but we won’t stop here. We must continue to do much more, every day.”
While the center-left opposition supported the law in parliament, it stressed that the government’s approach only tackles the criminal aspect of the problem while leaving economic and cultural divides unaddressed.
Italy’s statistics agency Istat recorded 106 femicides in 2024, 62 of which were committed by partners or former partners.
According to the European Institute for Gender Equality, there is no definition of femicide in UK criminal law.
However, this type of offence may fall under other provisions of the law, such as murder or manslaughter.
Murder and manslaughter are two of the offences that constitute homicide.
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