What happened ?
In the last few days Italy has been shocked by 2 new cases of femicide. Both victims were 22 year old university students, Sara Campanella and Ilaria Sula, murdered by men unable to accept rejection in love. Firstly on the 30th of March Sara Campanella was stabbed and killed in the street in Messina by a 27 year old man. Then, on the 2th of April,near Rome, the body of Ilaria Sula was found in a suitcase, the 22 year student had been missing since the 25th of March as the family denounced. The killer was the girl’s ex-partner who has already confessed the murder to the public institutions.
The social issue of gender based violence
The recent murders of Sara Campanella and Ilaria Sula are not isolated cases, but part of an ongoing social issue in Italy: gender based violence and femicide. In 2024, a total of 321 homicides have been committed across the country . Of these, 113 were women and 61 of them were killed by current or former partners unable to accept the end of the relationship. In addition, 31 of the total are within the family’s environment. These tragic numbers highlight a crisis where love is declined into compulsive possession and a rejection may lead to these dreadful consequences.
The need for Prevention
ASSEDEL condemns these 2 tragic acts and offers its sincere condolences to the families of the victims. However, we believe that it is essential to reflect on the theme of the Prevention Policies.
Even though the italian parliament has recently passed a law that officially introduce the crime of Femicide in the national Penal code, ASSEDEL claims that the exclusive punishment approach of the Italian government isn’t enough to properly address and solve such a crucial social issue as the gender based violence and femicides. Given the growing importance of this topic throughout the last few years , the government should implement a new preventive strategy able to go through radical change within Italian society and its male dominated culture. One key area for intervention is the education system. Indeed ASSEDEL supports the recent Italian bill, proposed through the initiative of 50,000 civil society signatures, aimed to introduce 33 mandatory hours per year of Emotional Education in the Italian schools. This reform would help young generations to learn how to understand and handle our own emotions and those of others
In conclusion, ASSEDEL calls for immediate action to bridge the gap in Italian prevention policies, in order to tackle and prevent future gender-based violence and femicides.