Italy’s parliament passed a law adding femicide to its criminal code, after earlier changing the legal definition of rape to include all non-consensual sex.
Both laws won bipartisan support — though the center-left opposition said that more should be done to address cultural and economic drivers of such violence — and came in response to a string of killings and other attacks on women.
French lawmakers also recently passed a bill enshrining consent in their country’s definition of rape: Experts say the prior requirement of coercion dissuaded victims from coming forward. The issue has gained urgency in France in the wake of the trial involving Gisèle Pelicot, who was raped by 51 men over several years while drugged.