ROME, Nov. 25 -- Several events were held in Italy to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Monday.
A bench dyed in red -- to recall femicides in the country -- was erected in the courtyard of the Italian parliament, in a ceremony attended by lawmakers.
The facade of the assembly building was also lit up in orange to join the campaign "Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands against Rape" launched by the United Nations.
In the same hours, a rally crossed the streets of the Italian capital to urge actions against a phenomenon that has proved impervious to attempts to curb it so far.
Similar rallies and awareness initiatives were seen in other major cities in the country.
A larger number of people -- between 50,000 and 100,000 according to local media's estimates -- took to the streets of Rome against gender violence on Saturday.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella acknowledged there was "still much to do" against the problem.
"Every woman should feel (public) institutions are close," Mattarella said in a declaration released by his office on Monday.
"Much has been done within our country... Nonetheless, gender violence has not stopped being a public emergency, and for this reason awareness of the phenomenon must keep growing," Mattarella stressed.
MOST FEMICIDES COMMITTED BY MEN
The president's warning reflected the situation on the ground.
In Italy, 95 women have been killed so far this year, 80 of them by the hands of a male partner or relative, a report by Italy's Economic and Social Research Institute EURES showed.
The latest case involved a 30-year-old pregnant woman, who was attacked with knife by her lover in Sicily on last Friday.
Overall, 133 women were murdered in 2018 against 123 in 2017, according to the latest available annual statistics published by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) on Monday.
This number, according to the ISTAT, was the third lowest in the European Union (EU).
Yet, women killed by husbands, male partners, or former partners made 54.9 percent of the total 133 victims, while those killed by a male relative accounted for 24.8 percent of the total.
Together, these two subgroups made the large majority (79.7 percent) of all women killed in 2018.
POLICE DATA WORRYING
The problem went far beyond femicides, as a specific report released by Italian police on Friday showed.
The number of female victims of abuse was on the rise in the country, "growing from about 68 percent (of all abuses reported) in 2016 to 71 percent in 2019," the report said.
This happened in spite of numerous awareness campaigns, laws that toughened penalties for perpetrators of this kind of violence and improved protection for victims, and renewed efforts by feminist civic groups in latest years.
"This data has a positive side as well," the report noted.
According to the police, in fact, it would mean there was a better awareness of the violence suffered among female victims, and a renewed attitude in denouncing the abuses.
Nonetheless, the situation remained worrying, with an average of 88 women suffering some kind of abuse (mistreatment, stalking, rape, and bashing) each day during 2018, according to police.
"Just as an example, one victim of gender violence every 15 minute was averagely recorded in March 2019 alone," it said.
"In 82 percent of the cases (in 2018), the male perpetrators of violence against women did not need to knock on their door, they have the key," it added.
Furthermore, some 80.2 percent of female victims and 74 percent of perpetrators in 2018 were Italian nationals. The report did not elaborate on whether the data might partially depend on the propensity of foreign communities in the country to denounce gender violence.
LEGISLATIVE STEPS
At legislative level, Italy did not stay idle in the face of the phenomenon.
In 2013, the parliament passed a law that strengthened penalties for perpetrators, made arrest for stalking and abuses mandatory, and made easier for victims to find protection and free legal aid.
A second bill was approved in July 2019, and further boosted jail terms and financial fines for perpetrators.
The maximum prison sentence was raised from six to seven years for domestic violence, and from 10 to 12 years for sexual violence (up to life sentence, if perpetrator and victim are related).
The law required police to fast-track investigations and to report cases to a prosecution office within three days from the complaint.
Finally, it introduced new types of offenses often targeting women, such as revenge porn (abusing a person by illegally spreading sexually explicit images or videos of them on the Internet), acid attacks, and forced marriage.
The government was expected to pass soon a decree to allocate 12 million euros (13.2 million U.S. dollars) funds for the children of women killed in femicides.
Although it could not restore "the affection they have lost", Italian Minister of Economy and Finance Roberto Gualtieri wrote on Twitter last Friday, this public funding will finance "scholarships, health spending, training and job placement."