She had reported sexual assault. The alleged perpetrator, a Carabiniere who was supposed to help her, was convicted in the first instance. The sentence was overturned on appeal, with an acquittal upheld by the Supreme Court. But she, a Cagliari native now 60, had turned to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, a body established under an international treaty adopted by the United Nations. The decision came in 2022: the acquittal, CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) ruled, had been issued on the basis of "gender stereotypes" and that the Cagliari judges had based their judgments "on distorted perceptions, preconceived ideas, and myths, not on relevant facts." These factors all too often lead to women losing in criminal proceedings for gender-related crimes. For this reason, the Italian state, "guilty" of flaws in its judicial system, was asked to compensate her. But after three years, nothing has happened. And the case has ended up in Parliament: the Government is called upon to state how it intends to intervene.
The case
The events date back to 2008. And one thing must be immediately clarified: according to the Italian justice system, the accused man is innocent, based on a final judgment. The story was reconstructed in the UN body's more than 20-page ruling. The woman had contacted the Carabinieri to report abuse by her husband. One of the officers who intervened contacted her the following day for a meeting. On that occasion, sexual intercourse took place at the home. Rape, she later claimed. A trial ensued. The Cagliari Court, in the first instance, sentenced the soldier to six years in prison. He appealed and prevailed in the subsequent proceedings.
In short, according to the appeals judges—in a decision also endorsed by the Supreme Court of Cassation—the sexual intercourse was consensual. Among the reasons: a condom had been used, which would rule out rape. Any bruises would also have been explained away "by the exuberance of a consensual encounter." It emerged that the woman filed a complaint because she later felt rejected. The defendant, therefore, is innocent because he did not commit the crime.
The decision
The judicial truth is indisputable. But the CEDAW ruling, the first of its kind in Italy, has arrived, following an appeal by lawyer Teresa Manente, criticizing the Italian justice system. The Committee determined that the courts' "treatment" "failed to ensure equality as a victim of gender-based violence and betrays a clear lack of understanding of the gendered constructs of violence against women, the concept of coercive control, the complexity of abuse of authority and trust, the impact of exposure to consecutive traumas, complex post-traumatic symptoms, including dissociation and memory loss, and the specific vulnerabilities of abuse victims." For this reason, compensation was ordered. The Italian state, which participated in the proceedings, has not yet awarded any sum to the Cagliari woman. Now the government must respond to a question from Democratic Party MP Valeria Valente, who asks "what initiatives it intends to take to implement the CEDAW Committee's decision, particularly regarding compensation."
Enrico Fresu
