At the G20 summit this week, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni backed Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara's controversial claim linking sexual violence against women to "illegal migration."

Earlier, Valditara had alleged the connection between sexual violence against women and migration at the launch of the Giulia Cecchettin Foundation, created by her family to honor her memory and combat violence against women.

In response, Cecchettin’s sister, Elena, reportedly slammed the education minister’s remark by posting on Instagram: "…if instead of making propaganda at the presentation of the foundation that bears the name of a girl killed by a white, Italian and 'nice' boy, people listened, hundreds of women in our country wouldn't continue to die every year."

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Protests in Giulia's name

Cecchettin, 22, was a student at Padua University studying Biomedical Engineering when she was killed last year by her ex-boyfriend, Filippo Turetta, 21.

Turetta, who confessed to the murder, stabbed Cecchettin 75 times before leaving her body in a gully near Lake Barcis in Friuli, northeast Italy. Turetta also admitted to taking meticulous steps to plan the murder, including withdrawing money from an ATM and conducting online research to plan his escape and evade police.

Cecchettin's tragic death shocked and enraged the country, which one legal journal described as having a "long history of legislation that has failed to protect women from violence, especially within their family units."

Across Italy, protestors took to the streets with flowers and signs in Italian saying: For Giulia Cecchettin and all the sisters killed before her -- We will burn everything.

Violence against women in Italy -- statistics

• Reported cases of homicide have indicated a decreasing trend since 2002. The peak of reported homicides of women was in 2003 when the recorded number of female murders reached 192.
• In 2022, there were 126 reported cases of women murdered. Seventy-four of the cases involved a former partner (defined as an ex-husband, ex-boyfriend or ex-fiance) or a relative.
• Between January and March 2021: 4,300 cases of gender violence and stalking were reported to have been received by an official helpline. Overwhelmingly, in 1,200 thousand calls (about 28 percent), the abuser was the husband or the wife of the victim. This was followed by about 551 calls where the victim reported the live-in partner as the perpetrator of the abuse.
• In 2019: About 91 percent of all the victims of sexual violence reported in Italy were female. Women, are also significantly more likely to be victims of some form of revenge porn or the sharing private sexual images or videos without their consent. About 83 percent of all victims of reported incidents of revenge porn were female.

The trend shows cases of violence against women have been on a general decline, though it must be noted that these are reported cases only. Moreover, there is no evidence suggesting a link to migration.

Femicide

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) broadly defines femicide as the killing of a woman or girl because of her gender Forms of femicide can include the killing of women as a result of intimate partner violence, the torture of women, and honor killing. Femicide is not included in the Italian Criminal Code, however, the EIGE cited Italy as a "good example" in collecting data on violence against women.

Since 2002, Italy's Ministry of the Interior has maintained a homicide database, compiling data from police reports, investigations, and open sources. The database includes details on victim-perpetrator relationships, victim and perpetrator characteristics, prior violence, methods, and locations of killings. The National Institute of Statistics (Istat) annually reports on intimate partner and family-related killings, as well as homicides involving women in sex work, trafficking, and sexual violence.

Additionally, Law No. 69 of 2019 Codice Rosso (Red Code), strengthens protections for victims of domestic and gender-based violence, introducing harsher penalties for crimes involving sexual violence, stalking, and partner homicides. The name "Red Code" was reportedly drawn because the law prioritizes and accelerates cases of domestic and gender-based violence, similar to the "code red" designation for critical cases used in emergency triage.

Worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1 in 3 women will suffer physical and sexual violence in their lifetime. In most incidents, the violence is instigated by an intimate partner or a relative.