Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Eighty-seventh session

Summary record of the 2035th meeting

Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Thursday, 1 February 2024, at 10 a.m.

Chair:Ms. Peláez Narváez

Contents

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention (continued)

Eighth periodic report of Italy

The meeting was called to order at 10.00 a.m.

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention (continued)

Eighth periodic report of Italy (CEDAW/C/ITA/8; CEDAW/C/ITA/QPR/8)

At the invitation of the Chair, the delegation of Italy joined the meeting.

Mr. Petri (Italy) introducing his country’s eighth periodic report (CEDAW/C/ITA/8), said that in September 2017 the Committee’s concluding observations on the seventh periodic report of Italy (CEDAW/C/ITA/CO/7) had been translated into Italian, posted on the website of the Interministerial Committee for Human Rights and shared with the Parliament. Since the Government attached great importance to countering all forms of discrimination against women and girls and was strongly committed to creating a more equitable society for them, it had made gender equality a cross-cutting priority in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The empowerment of women and girls had also been promoted through targeted measures to facilitate the access of women to the labour market, entrepreneurship and leadership positions and to improve their work-life balance, while supporting the wish of women to become mothers. To that end, the Government had strengthened its collaboration with the business sector, introduced a gender certification system and increased economic support for families.

The numerous measures adopted to prevent male violence against women, protect victims and prosecute the perpetrators had focused on the early detection of violence and the provision of economic support for victims. The Italian Government had also adopted measures to ensure the systematic collection and analysis of statistical data on gender-based violence. The National Strategic Plan on Male Violence against Women 2021–2023 was still applicable, and a new plan was being drafted. The New Guidelines for Hospital Treatment of Women Victims of Violence provided guidance on comprehensive treatment to overcome the physical and psychological repercussions on women’s health of male violence.

In the current Parliament, women accounted for approximately 33 per cent of the total number of members. Women were well represented in government positions too. Apart from the fact that the Head of Government – the President of the Council of Ministers – was a woman, women also held positions as ministers, deputy ministers and undersecretaries of State.

A process to identify budgetary expenditure that might have an impact on gender had been initiated. The 2024 Budget Law allocated €141 million to the Department for Equal Opportunities, more than €96 million of which were dedicated to the prevention of gender‑based violence, approximately €20 million to the fight against human trafficking and €18.5 million to the promotion of equal opportunities and the implementation of the National Strategy for Gender Equality. The allowance paid for the second month of parental leave, to be taken before a child reached the age of 6, had been increased to 60 per cent of the salary. Working mothers were given a social security contribution discount. Funds for fostering equal opportunities and combating violence against women would increase up by €10 million in 2024, 2025 and 2026 and by €6 million from 2027. Private sector employers who in the three‑year period 2024–2026 hired unemployed women who were victims of violence and received the Freedom Income benefit would be exempt from social security contributions. The Department for Equal Opportunities had published updated information on centres for women who were victims of violence. The addresses of shelters were confidential.

Law No. 53/2022 was aimed at enhancing data collection, primarily in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the prevalence, nature, and patterns of violence so as to enable policymakers and researchers to develop targeted action and policies. The resulting systematic approach to data collection ensured the consistency, comparability and reliability of information, thus facilitating the identification of trends and shedding light on the extent and specific forms of violence faced by women. A National Action Plan against Trafficking and Serious Exploitation of Human Beings for the period 2022–2025 had been adopted in October 2022.

The aim of gender equality certification was to promote women’s access to the labour market and leadership positions and to improve their work-life balance. The National Roma and Sinti Equality, Inclusion and Participation Strategy (2021–2030) had been approved in May 2022 and the National LGBT+ Strategy 2022–2025 had been adopted in October 2022. A number of legislative measures and decrees had been adopted to counter gender-based violence in 2022 and 2023, and a permanent observatory had been established to ascertain the effectiveness of rules on gender and efforts to combat domestic violence.

As at December 2023, some 2,500 women had been in custody in Italian prisons, and in June 2023, approximately 1,100 of them had been employed in prison workshops or by external employers. Vocational training courses were organized for female inmates to teach them job skills that would facilitate their reintegration in society after release. The Penitentiary Act provided for alternatives to detention for mothers of very young children and pregnant women.

As measures to secure a good work-life balance were an effective means of removing obstacles to women’s employment, the Department for Family Policies tried to involve the business world more closely in securing full female participation in the labour market. At the same time, to promote the empowerment of women and parents, the General Family Allowance had been introduced to rationalize, simplify and strengthen the previous family support system. In the field of labour and social policy, it had been found that flexible working arrangements that allowed employees to spend some of the working week on site but also sometimes to work from home ensured a better work-life balance.

The Ministry of Education, Universities and Research had set up a platform under the name “Unica” to offer students and families information to guide their choice of an educational pathway, to help them seize the opportunities afforded by the various types of school and to allow them to access innovative services that would simplify families’ lives. As one of the measures for implementing the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, in September 2023 the Ministry had adopted guidelines on developing and strengthening teaching in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and improving digital skills from kindergarten to secondary school. One of the aims was to boost women’s enrolment in STEM subjects in tertiary education.

Legal reforms to bring Italian law into line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities focused on introducing revised assessment procedures to ascertain disability and ensure suitable accommodation, introducing multidimensional assessment of disability, appointing a National Guarantor of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and upgrading public services to make them more accessible and inclusive. Persons with disabilities were to be issued with a card that would make it easier to access the services of the national police force.

The Ministry of the Interior had adopted initiatives aimed at simplifying the administrative procedure for recognizing statelessness. Specific attention had been paid to making documentation requirements less burdensome.

A legislative decree issued in 2021 had strengthened the powers of the Communications Regulatory Authority to penalize hate speech and protect human dignity. That authority was also responsible for regulating user-generated videos or audiovisual commercial communications on video-sharing platforms when the service provider was established in another member State of the European Union. It had issued guidelines aimed at ensuring compliance by influencers with the provisions of the Consolidated Text on Radio and Audiovisual Media Services.

Law No. 125/2014 on development cooperation stipulated that 10 per cent of the projects of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation must have gender equality as the main objective and that all others must include gender mainstreaming in their programmes.

Articles 1–6

Ms. Ameline said that she wished to know what measures had been taken in response to the findings of the Italian Court of Cassation and the European Court of Human Rights that Italy had signally failed to comply with its international obligations to combat sexual stereotyping in judicial decisions, to guarantee the right to a fair trial, to ensure access to legal counsel and to take account of women’s vulnerability. She wondered whether the law addressing sexist advertising could be strengthened to cover all forms of sexist language. The Committee would be grateful if the delegation could provide it with examples of penalties imposed by the Communications Regulatory Authority for breaches of that law.

She would like to know whether the protection of women’s rights had improved under the Cartabia reform of the legal system. The delegation was requested to clarify whether the definition of discrimination contained an express reference to discrimination against women with disabilities and rural or migrant women or references to discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. She wished to know whether the courts took account of intersectional discrimination.

It would be helpful if the delegation could indicate whether the State party believed that the gender approach would be strengthened within the framework of the new European asylum and immigration system established in December 2023. She was curious to know whether the Italian Government was prepared to review its migration policy. It would be of interest to find out if it intended to incorporate legal counselling and social integration for migrants while reconciling the need to control migration flows with the protection of women’s fundamental rights, taking into account their emotions, traditions, hopes and fears.

Observing that structural inequalities existed in the observance of the provisions of the Convention in the various Italian regions, particularly between those in the north and the south, she said that she would like to know how the national legislative base could be strengthened to better ensure effective application.

Noting that within the international community, the State party was at the forefront in promoting initiatives to strengthen the role of women in post-conflict situations and that the country’s fourth plan of action for women and peace and security would end in 2024, she asked if a replacement plan was being developed. She wondered what the State party was doing to include women in the peace and reconstruction efforts that were currently under way around the world, and said that she would like to know if the Government intended to integrate the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court into the domestic law.

The work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) was essential for the empowerment of women. The Cutro decree, which had been introduced in May 2023 to address migration, contained a section restricting the activities of NGOs that assisted migrants. Would the Government reassess its cooperation with such NGOs and reconsider those provisions?

A representative of Italy said that, like other international treaties, the Convention played a fundamental role in Italian jurisprudence. Under the Constitution, all international obligations had to be enshrined in national law. Judges at all levels, including in the Supreme Court, often referred to international treaties, including the Convention, when issuing their interpretations, which had to be consistent with such treaties. Specific attention had been given to recommendations from the European Court of Human Rights and the Committee in relation to combating gender-based stereotypes within the legal system. Training activities had been carried out for magistrates and judges, and since 2017 the Higher School of the Judiciary had held an annual conference on women’s rights, which was attended by over 150 judges.

A representative of Italy said that rulings from several cases could be cited to demonstrate the application of the Convention in Italian jurisprudence, including some cases heard by the Court of Cassation. In such cases, references to the Convention were embedded in the legal argument. In one ruling, issued in 2023, the sentence referred to secondary victimization in a clear reference to the Convention; another ruling made reference to a recommendation that had been issued by the Committee. The website of the Ministry of Justice contained a page dedicated to the Observatory on Gender-based Violence and also a link to a website describing the Convention.

A representative of Italy said that the Government had first adopted a strategy on gender equality in 2021 and that it was in line with the European Union Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025. It applied across all sectors and was allocated a budget of €5 million. A study was currently being conducted by a research institute in Bologna to better identify gender-based stereotypes and to draft measures to tackle them more effectively. The study was expected to wrap up by the end of 2024. Comprehensive communication plans on issues such as gender-based violence and stereotypes were currently being drawn up. During discussions at the Observatory on Gender-based Violence it had been noted that often such violence was not directly identified as such and that it was sometimes difficult to identify stereotypes that were prevalent in society.

A representative of Italy said that the Government was cooperating with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to identify violence within the migrant community, an issue which was also partly related to trafficking in persons. In 2019 the Government had established a database on gender-based violence, which also covered gender stereotypes, protection of victims and prosecution of cases. The database had been continuously updated.

A representative of Italy said that, as stipulated in a decree that transposed a European Union directive of 2018, the Communications Regulatory Authority could impose fines on social media networks of between €30,000 and €600,000 for the posting of discriminatory statements and other forms of online discrimination. It could also order service providers to remove detrimental posts.

A representative of Italy said that the Cartabia reform of the justice system involved changes to civil and criminal law to expedite proceedings, including those relating to gender‑based violence and discrimination against women. By the first quarter of 2023, the turnaround times for such proceedings had decreased from their 2019 levels by 19.2 per cent for civil cases and 29 per cent for criminal cases.

A representative of Italy said that the Cartabia reform provided for civil proceedings to be held for all cases of discrimination. A simplified, faster procedure was now available and the parties were able to represent themselves or be represented by legal counsel. The main achievement regarding civil matters was the simplification of all court proceedings for separation and divorce. From October 2024, a specific tribunal would be established for such matters, presided by a judge specialized in family law. A specific proceeding was applied for civil matters involving cases of violence.

A representative of Italy said that migrant women represented 50 per cent of the non-European population in Italy. To improve their integration in the labour market, a programming policy had been updated in 2023 and was applicable for the period up to 2027.

A representative of Italy said that, based on data relating to the Sustainable Development Goals, a reduction in regional disparities had been observed thanks to interregional convergence in terms of digitalisation, research and development, and improvements had been noted for example in the fields of quality education and a fairer distribution of income. In the south, employment rates had improved and there had been reductions in school dropout and in the number of people neither studying nor working, and Internet use among women had increased. However, disparities remained, principally because talented people often moved north, both within Italy and beyond. New measures for digitalization implemented under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan were expected to yield positive results by 2026.

Mr. Petri (Italy) said that under the action plan for women and peace and security, measures and programmes were currently in place to benefit Ukrainian women. In drafting a new plan for the next four years, the Government was attentive to the need for the plan to be better structured and more coherent.

A representative of Italy said that, in implementing measures to reduce gender-based violence in line with the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, the Government liaised directly with the Italian regions. The regions were also represented in the Observatory on Gender-based Violence. The Government allocated financial resources to the regions based on population and the number of centres available to combat violence in each. Regional disparity was observed not only between the north and the south of the country; certain regions in the south, such as Apulia, had set up effective services. A law adopted in 2023 appropriated specific financing to support centres to combat gender-based violence, and part of the funding was given directly to the regional administrations. A web-based monitoring system had been set up in 2019 to ensure the effective and coordinated use of such resources, and a report was presented every year to the Parliament on the monitoring system. Since 2022, the system’s financing had been increasing, and there had been a 37 per cent rise between 2023 and 2024. Some regions that had been lagging in implementing actions against gender-based violence had been showing improvements, and awareness of the problem of gender-based violence was increasing. In addition to the standard financial allocations, €20 million had been allocated to create shelters for victims and €5 million towards funding centres to combat gender-based violence.

A representative of Italy said that the Ministry of Justice had a specific budget to finance projects on gender-based violence. In 2021 and 2022, the regional administrations had been invited to respond to a call for tenders and to present project proposals aimed at developing public services to assist victims of crimes. In 2023, in an attempt to reduce regional disparities, a different method had been utilised to initiate projects. The Ministry provided templates to facilitate the participation of the regional governments. The projects focused on creating information points for victims of violence.

The Ministry of Justice had also established a portal on legal matters specifically for victims of crime.

A representative of Italy said that the Higher School of the Judiciary had made available training that focused on the specific language used in legal proceedings related to gender-based violence. The Ministry of Justice, in collaboration with the Observatory on Gender-based Violence, had established a working group to ensure that such language was clear and to reduce the risk that it would be misinterpreted in legal proceedings.

Regarding the Rome Statute, a law adopted in 2022 provided tools for cooperation between the Italian judicial system and the International Criminal Court. The aim was to support magistrates and judges by making training available. The Rome Court of Appeal was responsible for considering requests for mutual legal assistance and the transfer of persons convicted in Italy under the Rome Statute.

A representative of Italy said that the first president of the Court of Cassation was a woman and that she was also a member of the Observatory on Gender-based Violence. As gender-based violence was a complex and multidisciplinary issue, the membership of the Observatory was diverse and included legal experts, language specialists, psychologists and journalists.

Ms. Ameline said that the training of persons working in the justice system should be systemic and continuous rather than ad hoc, as gender-based violence was a major issue. Regarding the Cartabia reform and the shortening of the times required for legal proceedings, she would be interested to know if the reform had made the justice system accessible to vulnerable persons who had not previously had access to it. She also wondered if the State party would consider enhancing legal aid for vulnerable persons.

She wished to know whether any penalties had been applied, including by the Communications Regulatory Authority, in cases where individuals had made sexist remarks in the media. She would like to know whether the State party had a strategic, long-term approach to the reception, identification and integration of migrant women. The Committee had received reports that some women had not been granted asylum because the authorities had failed to identify them as victims of violence.

The Chair said that she wished to know how the State party ensured access to justice for women deprived of legal capacity.

Ms. Morsy said that, given the complexity of the political and institutional structure in the State party, she wondered whether a dedicated coordination mechanism was needed to improve coherence and equality among ministries and regional authorities. She was keen to know whether the funding allocated to public training programmes, especially those aimed at the police and judiciary, was sustainable and whether it had been institutionalized within the public administrations. Was the State party making progress in establishing a national human rights commission, and when was it expected to be operational?

She wished to know how the State party included women’s rights organizations in the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan at both the national and regional levels. It would be of interest to the Committee to find out whether Circular 7/2020 on gender budgeting complemented the relevant decrees adopted in June 2017 and June 2018 and was aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, and she would appreciate information on the key budget items included in gender budgeting activities. The Committee would welcome confirmation from the delegation that increased funding had been allocated to programmes relating to gender equality and female empowerment. It would like to find out whether development policy was being reoriented to focus on the countries of origin of migrants arriving in Italy and whether the State party was developing policies on the use of digital tools to measure the impact of public policies, especially regarding environmental matters affecting women.

Ms. Leinarte, noting that women continued to face a variety of obstacles to participation in the Italian labour market, said that she would be interested to hear whether Law No. 162/2021, the Equal Pay Act, had facilitated a transparent analysis of the gender gap. She wished to receive information on any temporary special measures introduced to ensure that women had equal access to health care, particularly in the light of worsening gender equalities in the Italian health care system.

A representative of Italy said that responsibility for addressing violence lay with the regional authorities, which engaged in technical and political discussions with the central Government and municipalities and shared information with them on cases of violence. Monitoring of such information was carried out through a bottom-up approach. In 2023, uptake of resources had been slow. To address that situation, it would be important to strengthen local networks, for example by encouraging the involvement of local stakeholders.

The Observatory on Gender-based Violence had been mandated to engage in continuous communication with other government bodies working in the same field. Empowerment was key to preventing gender-based violence. Several government entities – including the Observatory, the Steering Committee on Gender Equality and various ministries – implemented a range of measures to empower women and enable them to live independent lives. The Government had worked on an informal basis with NGOs for many years, and the establishment of the Observatory had marked the beginning of more formal cooperation. The Observatory was composed of members of the five most representative organizations dedicated to the empowerment of women and the fight against violence, officials from the three largest trade unions and the two most prominent employers’ organizations, and technical experts. The National Institute of Statistics, along with social policy experts, had evaluated previous strategic plans and interventions to support the Government’s efforts to combat gender-based violence. A gender balance analysis had been included for the first time in the State accounts in 2023.

Mr. Petri (Italy) said that progress had been made towards the establishment of an independent national human rights commission. Five bills on the subject, including a constitutional bill, were currently being examined by the Parliament.

A representative of Italy said that a key objective of the ongoing reform of the legislation relating to disabilities was to increase the use of digital tools in order to remove bureaucratic obstacles and make services more accessible.

A representative of Italy said that, to improve women’s access to the labour market, a gender equality certification scheme had been developed, with the intention of combating gender stereotypes preventing women from joining and remaining in the world of work and raising awareness among businesses of gender issues. To obtain certification, businesses must meet certain criteria related to women’s needs, including the provision of adequate maternity allowances. The scheme had been launched as a pilot programme in 2022 and more than 1,000 businesses had obtained certification to date. Certified businesses were monitored to ensure that they continued to meet the requirements. In addition, a new initiative was being implemented to raise awareness among businesses of their legal responsibilities to employees who were mothers. The aim of that initiative was to combat gender stereotypes, improve working environments and cultures and promote understanding of gender issues among employers and employees.

A representative of Italy said that the Golfo-Mosca Law had been a temporary special measure to improve gender diversity on the boards of directors of all State-owned companies. That measure had achieved positive results, as demonstrated by the changes in corporate culture and increased awareness of the importance of women’s involvement in decision-making. Other measures taken to enhance the gender balance of company boards included the implementation of the Women on Board initiative and the adoption as a temporary special measure of a law in November 2021 that had raised the quota of women on corporate boards from one third to two fifths.

Ms. Dettmeijer-Vermeulen said that she would like to learn how the State party planned to enact a comprehensive strategy to eliminate patriarchal attitudes and gender stereotypes through cooperation with the regional administrations and the allocation of sufficient funding. Information on training for judges on sexism and gender stereotypes would be welcome. She would like to know what measures were in place to combat gender stereotypes, in particular concerning trans women and girls and women and girls with disabilities, at all levels, and what role was played in that respect by the Advertising Self‑Regulation Institute and the Communications Regulatory Authority. It would also be useful to know how the State party was handling the gender bias and stereotyping that was commonly associated with biometric and surveillance systems. Noting that the State party was taking steps to improve data collection on gender-based violence, she wished to know what kind of data would be collected and whether they would be made publicly available. She was also keen to know how decisions on shared custody of children would be made when gender-based violence was a factor in the case, and since the entry into force of the Cartabia reform, how many cases of domestic violence had been dismissed because the injured party had not filed a report. She wondered what initiatives could be strengthened at the national and local levels to address the fact that so few complaints of gender-based violence were filed. The Committee would be interested to hear about the findings of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on Femicide and any policy changes that had subsequently been proposed or implemented. It would be of interest to the Committee to learn more about specialization in the judiciary with regard to violence and to find out whether the State party had considered enhancing training on combating violence in connection with its efforts to increase the number of judges and to reform legal procedures.

She would appreciate information on steps taken to ensure that women and girls arriving in Italy as refugees had access to protection in all circumstances. In addition, she would like to know whether NGO representatives were allowed to be present during interviews with victims of trafficking in persons. It would be helpful to hear how the State party ensured that individualized risk assessments were conducted before forced removals were initiated, in particular to enable an assessment of the risk that individuals would be trafficked on their return. The Committee would like to know how the State party intended to implement a nationwide identification and referral system for victims of trafficking, strengthen the capacity of the migrant reception system and take a more proactive approach to the reception and identification of victims of trafficking. She wondered whether the National Action Plan against Trafficking and Serious Exploitation of Human Beings for the period 2022–2025 provided for the use of specific tools to investigate sex trafficking of Nigerian women and girls. The Committee would like to learn how the State party planned to address the reduction in the number of investigations, prosecutions and penalties applied in cases of trafficking and wished to find out about measures taken to increase identification of child victims of trafficking. Information on measures taken to monitor and combat indoor and web-based sex work among women and girls would be appreciated. Lastly, she wondered whether mechanisms were in place to support women wishing to exit the sex industry and said that she would welcome information about the consequences for individuals committing the offence of soliciting.

A representative of Italy said that the Government was conducting an analysis of gender stereotypes in order to improve its policies addressing domestic and gender-based violence. The Department for Equal Opportunities planned to adopt guidelines on training to help professionals such as lawyers, teachers and doctors to identify behaviours indicating that an individual might be a victim of domestic violence. Those guidelines would include recommendations on the use of language and the categorization of types of domestic violence. The strategy on gender-based violence for the period 2024 to 2026 would encompass a wide range of measures aimed at preventing and combating that phenomenon.

A representative of Italy said that a recent survey of adults’ experiences of gender‑based discrimination and violence had revealed that, since 2018, the prevalence of gender stereotypes had decreased, fewer women had experienced physical violence and fewer people believed that women were in some way responsible for acts of violence committed against them.

In its analysis relating to gender-based violence and stereotypes in social media publications, the Italian National Institute of Statistics had determined that publications more commonly carried expressions of indignation rather than hate speech. The Office had received funding from the European Commission to measure violence against minors, and it also monitored female genital mutilation and was conducting studies into how gender bias could be removed from machine learning.

A representative of Italy said that the Higher School of the Judiciary ran several courses on gender-based violence, including workshops that allowed judges to discuss the relevant rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. Almost 80 per cent of prosecutorial offices had complied with the legal requirement to establish specialist gender-based violence units. Undocumented migrant victims of gender-based violence, trafficking in persons and the exploitation of prostitution were entitled to a one-year residency permit that allowed them to work, and the permits could be extended.

A representative of Italy said that among migrants, potential victims of trafficking in persons were identified rapidly thanks to coordination between several agencies, which made it possible to provide protection for them and to refer them to the appropriate bodies. Mobile police units worked closely with the International Organization for Migration to undertake initial screening immediately upon migrants’ arrival in the country, with a particular focus on minors. The support provided to potential victims included assistance from interpreters and cultural mediators, many of whom were themselves former victims of trafficking. If a migrant’s status as a victim of trafficking was confirmed during the initial interview, he or she was taken to a dedicated shelter and the relevant authorities were informed. Child victims benefited from an expedited process and could remain in shelters for a maximum of 30 days before being placed in alternative care, which could include foster care. Contact with their families of origin was encouraged. Training for officials involved in the victim identification process included a tool that simulated dialogue with a potential victim.

A representative of Italy said that the National Plan of Action against Trafficking and Serious Exploitation of Human Beings set out a multi-year strategy and specific action to prevent trafficking, raise awareness of it and ensure victims’ social integration. A steering committee had been established to decide on action at the operational level, along with a technical committee, and the national referral mechanism had been updated. The budgetary resources allocated to the Plan had amounted to €2 million in 2023, rising to €7 million per year from 2024.

A representative of Italy said that the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on Femicide had produced a number of reports, including one on secondary victimization. It also contributed to, inter alia, the drafting of legislation and memorandums of understanding between State and regional authorities on minimum requirements for centres for men who perpetrated violence.

A representative of Italy said that legal provisions had been introduced to ensure that victims of abuse were informed of all their rights and therefore able to access justice. To that end, several prosecutorial offices employed a standardized document written in clear language that had been translated into different languages.

A representative of Italy said that, following the media’s unclear reporting of a number of sexual abuse cases, a recommendation on the portrayal of women in the media had been adopted, with the aim of ensuring that victims were respected and stereotypes avoided.

A representative of Italy said that mandatory training courses for law enforcement officers on subjects such as hate speech, gender-based violence, gender identity, sexual orientation and women with disabilities were delivered in partnership with stakeholders, including NGOs.

Ms. Dettmeijer-Vermeulen said that it would be good to have information on any plans to improve the identification of child victims of trafficking in persons and to identify victims in locations other than migrant reception centres.

Ms. Ameline said that she would welcome an evaluation of the legislation on trafficking in persons introduced in 2023 and of the code of conduct developed for NGOs assisting in sea rescue operations. It would be of particular interest to know how the need to detect traffickers and smugglers was balanced against fundamental rights, especially those of women. She also wished to know whether the monitoring of the labour exploitation of trafficked persons, particularly in the south of the country, would be strengthened.

Ms. Tisheva said that she wished to have details of the specific measures adopted to protect the families of victims of gender-based violence from defamation, denigration, harassment and insults.

A representative of Italy said that there were, on average, 500 investigations each year into trafficking in persons. Those investigations were complex and often involved investigators in several locations.

A representative of Italy said that action had been taken to combat labour exploitation, particularly in the agriculture sector, as part of a national strategy that focused on foreign victims. Several initiatives were being undertaken at the national level via task forces that involved various agencies, cultural mediators and the International Organization for Migration. Efforts were being made to enable the different regional authorities to share their experiences and practices in combating labour exploitation in all sectors, including domestic work. Informal work was addressed through a national plan.

Articles 7–9

Ms. Mikko said that she wished to know why there was lack of gender parity among political leaders and how parity would be incorporated into all legal texts as a fundamental right and lever for change in relation to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It would also be useful to find out how many parliamentary standing committees were chaired by women, whether there was parity among the vice-presidents of the Parliament and whether sexist addresses and aggression within the Parliament were subject to sanctions. The Committee would welcome information on plans to introduce a feminist foreign policy, measures to increase the number of female officers in the military and the police and initiatives to address women’s under-representation in local and regional councils.

Ms. Ameline said that it would be useful to have additional information on the State party’s efforts to combat statelessness. Specifically, the Committee would like to know whether the current legislation allowed for expedited naturalization processes, particularly for vulnerable groups, including the Roma.

A representative of Italy said that, since the decrease in the number of women in the Parliament had followed reforms that had reduced the total number of members of both chambers, a direct comparison was not possible. The fact that the President of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the opposition were both women demonstrated that women were represented in politics. Initiatives to increase participation of women at the local, national and European levels had resulted in a positive trend that was expected to lead to parity.

The meeting rose at 1 p.m.