Italy: Non-Governmental and Gender-Related Persecution

The question of non-governmental or gender-related persecution has been tackled in a very narrow sample of asylum cases in Italy, and often in an indirect and unconscious way. Consequently, the Italian report does not answer, if not in a limited manner, for the numberless examples of situations which can amount to non-governmental or gender-related persecution. It is arguable that the main problem arises when the two considered situations - non-governmental persecution and gender-related persecution - overlap, e.g. where women face a real risk of serious harm at the hands of a non-State actor namely their husband, male relatives, etc. In most of these cases, little room is left for grounding the claim on the Geneva Convention definition of refugee.