Global Issues

Italy

• Destination and transit country for women, children, and men subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor.

• Victims originate from Romania, Nigeria, Morocco, Albania, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, China, and, to a lesser extent, Belarus, Brazil, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Ecuador.

• Romanians and other children from Eastern Europe continued to be subjected to sex trafficking and forced begging.

• Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

• 12.2% of women in Italy report intimate partner physical violence in their lifetime.

• 6.1% of women report sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime.

• 18.8% of women report intimate partner and/or non-partner physical violence in their lifetime.

• 23.7% of women report intimate partner and/or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.

• Women forced into polygamous marriages.

• Occasional reports of honour crimes.

Ministry of Equal Opportunity estimated 35,000 immigrant women were victims of genital mutilation.

 

Advocacy:

• Il Comitato per i Diritti Civili delle Prostitute (Committee for Civil Rights of Prostitutes) – founded in 1982 by prositutes to give aid to prostitutes.

 

Sources: UN Women Violence against Women Prevalence Data:  Surveys  by  Country 2011; ABC News; U.S. Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report; U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011