On the occasion of the International Women's Day 2021, Ambassador Barbara Faedda interviewed both Senator Valeria Valente, President of the Italian Parliamentary Investigation Committee on Femicide and Gender Violence, and Professor Marina Calloni, Director of the ADV–Against Domestic Violence Research Center of the Università di Milano – Bicocca, to reflect on femicide and gender-based violence, anti-femicide measures, gender inequality, the role of education, women in leadership, the impact of COVID-19, and more

 

Question
Senator Valente, as President of the Committee, can you describe the “Parliamentary Investigation Committee on Femicide and Gender Violence,” which was established in 2018?

Answer
It is a single-chamber Committee of inquiry in the Senate, Italy’s upper chamber, which has the same powers as the investigative judiciary and is tasked with looking into the nature and extent of the phenomenon of femicide and gender-based violence. It is composed of 20 female and male senators from the whole range of political positions (proportional to each parliamentary group’s numbers) and with representation of all political groups.

Q
How is it organized and what are its main functions?

A
It has a president, two vice presidents, and two secretaries, and the investigative work is done in groups. Its main functions are to determine the true dimensions, conditions, quality, and causes of femicide—understood as the killing of a woman as such— and, more generally, the phenomenon of gender-based violence, [and] the status of implementation of the chief regulations to combat it: from the ratification of the Istanbul Convention combating violence against women and domestic violence (June 27, 2013, n.77) and the law on combating violence against women (known as 119/2013). The Committee’s tasks also include monitoring each Italian region's implementation of the National Plan on violence against women and national guidelines; monitoring the activity of anti-violence centers and shelters for battered women; and assessing needs and proposing new legislation.

Q
What are the guiding legislative texts and conventions?

A
The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, created in Istanbul on May 11, 2011, plus the main Italian laws: the 119/2013 law, the law on stalking, the Red Code.

Q
Women are often killed by someone close to them—most often by their (current or former) partner or a family member.
In Italy, are some kinds of women more at risk than others?

A
The phenomenon of femicide and gender violence is not an emergency but rather a structural phenomenon, because its deepest cause is the patriarchal culture that tries to make a woman be a weak subject in relation to an abusive man. As such, this phenomenon affects all social classes in our country. Therefore, there are no higher-risk categories of women—but lack of economic autonomy is surely a strong deterrent to finding a pathway out of violence: women who are economically dependent on their partners suffer more.

Q
What are the triggers for male violence and what are the baseline conditions that foster such violence?

A
The biggest trigger is a woman exercising her freedom: when a woman decides to break off her relationship and leave her partner (whether a boyfriend or a husband), she unfortunately exposes herself to violence, which can lead to femicide. And the same thing can happen to daughters and sisters who emancipate themselves from the patriarchal model of how power is handled within a family. The conditions that create the basis for violence are in the culture of patriarchy that considers the relationship between a man and a woman not as equal but with a power imbalance that favors males, to the detriment of females, and that considers women’s bodies as the terrain where this power imbalance is enacted. So a woman’s emancipation is the trigger; and it then plays out in many ways in different cases.

Q
According to the United Nations, even in countries where homicides are decreasing, the number of women getting killed is increasing. The recent pandemic has only exacerbated the situation. You have said that COVID-19 highlighted a great deal of fragility and injustice in our social system; what exactly did you mean? And how is Italy reacting to these shortcomings that are now coming to light?

A
COVID immediately spotlighted the fragile situation of many women who—because of pandemic restrictions—are shut indoors, often together with their tormentors. Over the course of the lockdown, violent crime decreased overall, including homicides. But femicides and violence against women remained unchanged, and thus their proportion of the total number became critical. We in the Parliamentary Investigation Committee on Femicide and Gender Violence found that, as of April 2020, femicides accounted for 60% of all killings. Generally, during the pandemic women have shouldered a double workload: remote working from home has led to increased domestic and care work, and—with children doing school from home—overseeing kids in their online education, too, has become a female task. In addition, many women have lost their jobs because women’s work is more precarious and women are more likely to be in the service sector. I believe, however, that Italy is recognizing that there’s great opportunity in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (with which Italy is preparing to apply for 209 billion euros allocated by the EU): overcoming the gender gap in employment, bringing the female employment rate—now at around 49%—up to the European average—62%—would lead to a rise in GDP of 7%, according to the Bank of Italy. Investing in women means taking the brakes off the country, and promoting female self-determination and empowerment also means getting rid of violence.

Q
Despite efforts to stop gender-based violence, femicide continues around the world. Recent figures from the UN show that over 50,000 women are victims of femicide globally each year. What are the statistics for Italy?
Do you share the opinion of the World Health Organization that to prevent femicide, we must first address gender inequality in the social, professional, and family arenas? Or do you think there are other more effective and immediate tools?

A
One of the problems in the analysis of gender violence is precisely the shortage of unambiguous statistics and solid data that’s comparable among countries. Research done in Italy by ISTAT (the Italian National Institute of Statistics) shows that about 35% of women suffer some form of violence in their lifetime, and that we have about 200 femicides per year; with these numbers, I believe that Italy unfortunately is keeping pace with other Western countries. The vast majority of femicides are committed by a man within the same family—and this is also right in line with what happens abroad.

I fully agree with the opinion of the WHO: without attacking gender inequalities at all levels, you cannot eradicate violence and therefore femicide. This is why, as I said, we believe that women’s employment must be considered the top priority of the Recovery Plan. Women’s talents and skills must be put to use in work outside the home, and women must occupy this wide area of autonomy and determination, for their benefit and benefit of the country.

Q
Despite local, national, and regional initiatives, there are still complaints from many quarters about the lack of accurate statistics and tallies, which are indispensable for the development of prevention strategies and planning.
What is Italy doing to ensure accurate data, and what contribution can the nation offer, in the international arena, to ensure greater transparency and more accurate information?

A
The question is very pertinent, as I mentioned earlier. On November 25, 2020, the Senate unanimously approved a law—proposed by our Senate Investigation Committee on Femicide and Gender-based Violence—regarding “Provisions for statistics on gender-based violence,” which aims to ensure an adequate flow of information on gender-based violence against women in order to “design adequate prevention and counteraction policies and to ensure effective monitoring of the phenomenon.” The law, which must be approved by the House, provides that ISTAT and Sistan (the National Statistical System) allows for a periodic survey of violence against women, with estimates of the underground portion of the various types of violence: physical, sexual, psychological, and economic violence, and stalking. Data will also be provided by public health facilities and, in particular, by medical emergency rooms. In addition, an inter-ministerial database will be established (by the Interior ministry and the Justice ministry) to collect data on femicides and women who have reported violence. The law also stipulates that crime reports shall record the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator. This information might seem irrelevant, but it can signal an escalation of violence. Even damage to a car, if committed by an ex-partner, can ring the alarm bell that something more serious could happen to the victim.

Q
You often talk about the importance of training for law enforcement, judges, and health care personnel.
What kinds of initiatives have already been done in Italy, and what do you hope for? Have there been good results so far? Are there any best practices that Italy can propose internationally that other countries could then replicate?

A
The training of justice and health professionals is essential for interrupting the vicious circle of violence, for avoiding secondary victimization, and for prompting women to have confidence and to make a police report. Indeed, it serves to quash the prejudice and stereotypes that hurt women and that confirm to a victim, albeit unconsciously, that she deserved the violence or that, in any case, the female victim failed to do everything in her power to stop it. In Italy we have included training in the National Anti-Violence Plan, and we have already seen results. There are many good practices: for example, the Pink Code allows health-care workers to recognize and prioritize women who are victims of violence. Anti-violence centers and shelters are certainly a good practice born of feminist culture. In those places, women’s culture saves women by allowing them to recognize violence and not feel like victims; to free themselves. We have seen that the nationwide hotline number for reporting trouble and asking for help (accessed by phone and also via the digital app), has really worked, even during COVID.

Q
For 2021, the UN named a theme for International Women’s Day: “Women in leadership: achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” What are your reflections and proposals in this area, for Italy and—more generally—for the international community?

A
The theme of female leadership is strategic because women, if they can move freely, exercise power in a more inclusive and empathetic way, based on dialogue. It’s what the world beyond the COVID emergency will absolutely need. I believe that it’s no accident that the great shift in the European attitude towards COVID was determined by two women, Ursula von der Leyen and Christine Lagarde, who—unlike what men would have done—focused on cohesion and solidarity, and also admitted to delays, slowness, and mistakes. Together, certainly not on their own but certainly thanks to their leadership, they have called into question the austerity that had unfortunately marked the European Union and that, with the pandemic emergency, would have seriously damaged the progress of the European project as well as the progress of the Member States.

Interview translated by Abigail Asher.