Victims of gender violence to speak in schools - Meloni

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 9 - Premier Giorgia Meloni said on Friday she would like survivors of gender-based violence or relatives of victims to speak in schools for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25.
    "Nothing is more educational," Meloni told journalist Bruno Vespa in an interview at the forum 'Italy to Come' at Masseria Li Reni.
    On Wednesday the government approved a bill clamping down on gender-based after a recent string of headline-grabbing femicides in Italy.
    The package includes new restraining orders and heightened surveillance on men guilty of domestic violence and it also boosts the emergency gender violence hotline.
    The measures aim to interrupt the cycle of violence" and to "act promptly and effectively", according to Family and Equal Opportunities Minister Eugenia Roccella.
    According to official figures, femicides are up significantly this year while the overall homicide rate has dropped.
    Late last month a man killed his seven-month pregnant partner near Milan after she objected to his affair with another woman, while in Rome a woman police officer was shot dead by a colleague she had had a relationship with, after which he shot himself. (ANSA).