Italian parliament unanimously votes to make femicide a crime
There is no agreed worldwide definition of femicide, which makes it hard to count and compare statistics.The Italian law will apply to murders which are "an act of hatred, discrimination, domination, control, or subjugation of a woman as a woman", or that occur when she breaks off a relationship or to "limit her individual freedoms."The latest police data in Italy shows a slight fall in the number of women killed last year to 116, with 106 said to be motivated by gender. In future, such cases would be recorded separately and trigger an automatic life sentence, meant as a deterrent.Gino Cecchettin isn't sure such a law would have saved his daughter: her killer was sent to prison for life in any case.But he does think defining and discussing the problem is important."Before, many people especially from the centre and extreme right didn't want to hear the word femicide," Mr Cecchettin told the BBC. "Now this is a world where we can speak about it. That's a little step, but it's a step."His own focus is on education, not legislation.After Giulia's murder, her father describes taking "a very intense look into what was happening around me" then deciding to create a foundation in her name devoted to preventing others suffering as his family have. "I wanted to understand what had come to [Filippo's] mind," Gino Cecchettin explained. "He was a student, a beloved son. Like a normal guy."What he found, he says, was a society full of stereotypes about women and notions of male superiority, and young men struggling to manage their emotions. His daughter's ex-boyfriend had stabbed her to death in a premeditated attack, when she refused to get back together with him.
