"Sexual violence is a widespread and systemic phenomenon all over the world. Victims often do not know their rights and face multiple obstacles in accessing justice and compensation, including harmful gender stereotypes, misconceptions about sexual violence, guilt accusations, doubts about their credibility, inadequate support and ineffective legislation.
In Italy, in particular, the prejudice that blames the woman for the sexual violence suffered persists.
A prejudice that is confirmed in the Italian penal code, where in article 609-bis, the "crime of rape" is expected to be necessarily linked to the elements of violence, or of the threat or of deception, or authority abuse.
However, as established by the Istanbul Convention, ratified by Italy in 2013, rape is a "sexual relationship without consent". Article 36, paragraph 2, of the Convention specifies that consent "must be given voluntarily, as a free manifestation of the person's will, and must be assessed taking into account the situation and context".
For these reasons, we ask the Minister of Justice to revise article 609-bis of the penal code, in line with the commitments made in 2013, so that any non-consensual sexual act is punishable."
No comments:
Post a Comment