Overview
- The lower house approved the measure 227–0, making sexual acts without a person’s free and current consent a criminal offense.
- The rewritten Article 609-bis covers performing, making another perform, or making another suffer sexual acts when consent is absent.
- Penalties are set at six to twelve years in prison, with reductions permitted for cases deemed of lesser gravity.
- The text retains with slight adjustments provisions on force, threats, abuse of authority, exploitation of physical or mental inferiority or particular vulnerability, and deception by impersonation.
- The bill emerged from a bipartisan amendment by Carolina Varchi and Michela Di Biase after talks involving Giorgia Meloni and Elly Schlein, aligns Italy with the Istanbul Convention, and now proceeds to the Senate with calls for training and prevention.