Italian Senate Seeks to Amend Bill on Sexual Violence with Recognizable Consent
Amendments in the Senate to the bill on sexual violence, which introduced the principle of women’s consent without which the crime occurs, are underway. The bill, already approved unanimously in the Chamber, was the result of a bipartisan agreement following input from the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Democratic leader Elly Schlein. However, it was stopped in November at Palazzo Madama, under pressure from the centre-right, after a heated political controversy.
Introduction of Recognizable Consent
The rapporteur of the bill, the Northern League member Giulia Bongiorno, has proposed a text that provides for recognizable consent, meaning that the willingness to have a relationship is made explicit and recognizable in some way, based on the context. Failure to do so would trigger the crime. Bongiorno, president of the Senate Justice Commission, which is examining the bill, explained the proposal to Ansa, stating that the text will be presented in the classroom on February 10th, and she hopes to find agreement with the other groups.
The main innovation that will be introduced in the text is the concept of recognizable consent, in addition to the concept of consent itself. According to Bongiorno, it is necessary to find a point of balance, where consent is not only present but also recognizable. The new text will introduce the “recognizability of consent that is taken from the context,” meaning that the presence or absence of consent to the sexual act must be “obtainable from the context.”
Background and Controversy
The text, the result of an agreement between Meloni and Schlein, was supposed to be definitively approved by the Senate on November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. However, the majority senators on the Justice Commission asked for further time to investigate, sparking controversy. Bongiorno has underlined that the bill on sexual violence has been the subject of in-depth analysis, and the various groups have given indications. She has also stated that consent must be an element of the case, the most important one, and that the crime exists if there is no recognizable consensus based on the context.
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