Italy has moved towards legalising chemical castration for rapists and paedophiles under a proposed new law.
The parliament in Rome gave its approval on Wednesday to the creation of a committee that could draft laws on treating violent sex offenders with androgen-blocking drugs.
The treatment would be consensual and reversible with the aim of preventing reoffending, Politico has reported.
It is the latest move by Italy’s Right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to crack down on law and order.
Since she came to power in 2022, Meloni has spearheaded legislation establishing new crimes and tougher penalties.
Pictured: Chemical castration being carried out in Kazakhstan (file photo)
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has launched a campaign to crack down on law and order
The new law, however, was proposed by a far-Right branch of her governing coalition who previously made chemical castration for paedophiles and rapists a key part of its platform.
Under the proposal, violent sex offenders could avoid jail in exchange for taking hormone-blocking drugs.
The plans, however, have been criticised by opposition groups for being ‘extremist’ and a ‘violation of humanity and justice’.
Enrico Borghi from the centrist Italia Viva party posted on social media: ‘What’s next? Tar and feathers, or rope and soap?’
Simona Bonafè from the centre-Left Democratic Party added that the plans were ‘unconstitutional’ and undermined ‘the foundation of our legal system that has overcome the use of corporal punishment for centuries’.
Chemical castration involves a person taking hormone-blocking drugs to prevent the production of testosterone.
However, concerns have been raised about physical and psychological side effects and its effectiveness at stopping reoffending.
The method has already been introduced in a number of countries as a punishment for certain crimes.
The new sentences come amid a campaign in Kazakhstan for a toughening in the current laws to permit surgical castration for the most serious child sex offenders
Details were not given of the cases, but the child sex offenders are this year starting to forcibly receive libido-sapping injections (pictured: a nurse conducting the chemical castration of a paedophile convict)
Last month, Kazakhstan announced the mass chemical castration of 11 paedophiles amid a campaign for the worst offenders to have their genitals surgically removed.
All the men reportedly ‘committed crimes against the sexual inviolability of minors’ in the Kostanay region in the north of the country.
Approval was given for the paedophiles to be jabbed 24 times a year at an annual cost of £278 each.
And in March Madagascar’s parliament approved a new law that will see paedophiles surgically castrated for their crimes.
Under the plans, anyone found guilty of raping a child under ten-years-old will be surgically castrated and sentenced to life imprisonment.
While if the victim is between ten and 13-years-old, they will instead be chemically castrated and face 15 to 20 years of forced labour.
Whereas Russia is also moving towards the forced chemical castration of paedophiles.
A pro-Putin political party in Moscow proposed the legislation last year following a series of paedophile attacks on children.
The new draft laws would impose forcible chemical injections on convicted paedophiles in the months before they are released at the end of sentences.