ROME (ITALPRESS) – The Council of Ministers at today’s meeting approved the outline of the draft law for the “Introduction of the crime of Feminicide and other regulatory interventions to combat violence against women and protect victims.”
“Since the beginning of our term, violence against women has been a central issue: we have tried to intervene in prevention tools, with the adoption of precautionary measures. Femicides have decreased very slightly, so we felt we needed to intervene again.” This was emphasized by Family Minister Eugenia Roccella at a press conference at the end of the Council of Ministers.
“We have therefore introduced an autonomous crime of feminicide that will be punished with life imprisonment,” Roccella continues, -This confirms the specificity of the situation and therefore a difference from murder, not in terms of seriousness from an ethical point of view but precisely because of the numerical diversity of cases of feminicide: there is an absolutely evident asymmetry between women and men, and the murder of men by women presents negligible, not to say almost nonexistent, numbers. This asymmetry concerns male power, private relationships, and female freedom: femicide had so far never entered the criminal code, so today’s passage is a disruptive novelty. The fight against violence against women must involve the way of conceiving the male-female relationship: the goal is to produce a cultural change also through the introduction of this crime. There are other important things in the text, such as mandatory training for magistrates: everyone in the Council of Ministers spoke on this measure and everyone was satisfied with the result achieved.”
“To have included femicide in the criminal justice system as an autonomous case is a momentous achievement: until now, there was discussion about the possibility of configuring this form of crime as an aggravating circumstance of homicide, now having constituted an autonomous case exempts us from a series of technical problems concerning the balancing of mitigating and aggravating factors.” Thus Justice Minister Carlo Nordio at a press conference after the Council of Ministers.
“This is also a powerful manifestation of attention to this very painful scourge, which has been given criminal recognition of first stature,” adds Nordio, – Maltreatment, stalking and other types of crimes ascribable to code red become aggravating instead, making it more difficult for those who commit them to be treated leniently. Another novelty is the attention given to the victim or her relatives when the victim is deceased: this attention is manifested in the prosecutor’s obligation to listen directly to the victim or relatives, without delegating to the judicial police; this is not a lack of trust in the latter, but a way of further empowering the judiciary toward aggression against women with direct intervention by the prosecuting authority.”
“Equally important is the need to hear the victim’s opinion even when the perpetrator of violence asks for a plea bargain: the victim’s opinion is not binding, but it nevertheless imposes a special motivation on the judge should he or she disregard it; the victim or relatives will also have to be heard in case of changes in the prison treatment for the perpetrator of violence. Overall, the figure of the victim or relatives is enhanced, in that they are placed in a position to intervene by becoming a protagonist in the trial dialectic: the cultural and professional training of the magistrate is also essential to avoid secondary victimization. With this measure we toughen the penalties and send a signal of the state’s attention to such a disruptive phenomenon,” Nordio concludes.
Also on the same wavelength is Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi: “This is a very important intervention, which is in the wake of a number of measures already taken to mark a strong presence on the issue of violence against women: I would also like to point out that police training on sensitivity and professionalism on this issue is growing. In the police garrisons there are places dedicated to listening to victims, the so-called pink rooms,” Piantedosi continued, “At the moment there are 339 throughout the country between police headquarters and barracks, more will be established, and this will go hand in hand with the commitment toward raising awareness among personnel.
Labor Minister Marina Calderone comments, “Defining the crime of feminicide today and assigning it an autonomous codictic dimension is absolutely necessary: it is a terrible crime, a tragic epilogue to situations that speak of violence repeated over time. Women often suffer in silence without denouncing, because they are afraid for the future of their children,” Calderone continues, -Our commitment must be to punish those who are responsible for such a heinous crime, at the same time we want to support those who are in difficulty and give women the chance to free themselves from such tragic situations: we are putting in place many tools, but we need everyone’s help to spread the awareness that there is a solution against feminicide.
“Alongside this important measure, my ministry is flanking an initiative that responds to an appeal in recent days from the rectors: our response is an immediate allocation of 8.5 million euros, dedicated to combating gender-based violence with special desks that each university will decide how to articulate; we have also provided forms of assistance to support people suffering the consequences of gender-based violence.” Thus Minister of Universities Anna Maria Bernini at a press conference after the Council of Ministers.
photo: IPA Agency
(ITALPRESS).
