Violence against women is “incompatible with our present” and must be stopped, said Premier Giorgia Meloni at the signing of the Agreement for development and cohesion with the Veneto Region.
The ceremony opened with a round of applause in memory of Giulia Cecchettin, the 22-year-old biomedical engineering student who was murdered by her former boyfriend Filippo Turetta in Veneto on November 11.
“I endorse the act of remembrance for Giulia and our collective responsibility in the face of intolerable phenomena that must be fought at 360 degrees,” said the premier.
“I am proud of the law that was voted by all the political forces (in parliament),” continued Meloni. She was referring to the new anti-violence and anti-stalking norms approved definitively by the Senate on Wednesday.
“There are areas where sharing can make a difference,” she added.
“We have other initiatives ready, we will not stop until violence against women stops, it is something that is incompatible with our present,” concluded Meloni.
Increased protection for women in danger
On Wednesday the Senate gave unanimous approval, with 157 votes in favour, to a government bill on violence against women, making it the law of the land.
The law, drafted by Family and Equal Opportunities Minister Eugenia Roccella, increases protection for women in danger and the survivors of gender-based violence.
The package, which was signed off by the government in June and approved by the Lower House in October, includes new restraining orders and heightened surveillance on men guilty of domestic violence. It also boosts the emergency gender-violence hotline.
The measures aim to interrupt the “cycle of violence” and to “act promptly and effectively” according to Roccella.
The government and opposition agreed on two motions accelerating the passage of the bill in the Senate amid the outcry sparked by the femicide of Cecchettin.
Half the women in Italy experience abuse at least once in their life
More than 12 million women in Italy, equal to almost 51%, between the ages of 18 and 84, have experienced physical or psychological violence at least once in their lifetime but only 5% have reported the incident, according to a study carried out by Institute of Clinical Physiology of the National Research Council (CNR) in 2022. The results were published today.
Over 2.5 million women (10.1%) reported currently experiencing situations of psychological violence. Another 80,000 (0.3%) said they were currently suffering physical violence.
The victims of violence were mainly women under 60 years of age with a medium-high level of education, a job and an average income and who were married and living with their partner, according to the study. Over half of them had children.
CNR said the data on gender-based violence in Italy provide “evidence of a particularly extensive and only partly visible phenomenon”.
