On July 2, 2026, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Italian authorities for their handling of domestic violence allegations brought by Audrey Ubeda, a French national living in Campania, Italy, and her two children

In Ubeda and Others v. Italy, the Court unanimously held that Italian authorities violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment, and Article 8 ECHR, which protects private and family life, after they failed to properly address allegations of physical and psychological violence

The case began in April 2021, when Ubeda filed a police complaint against her former cohabitant and the father of her children, alleging that he had been violent toward her and the children “both physically and psychologically.” In the complaint, Ubeda claimed that her husband had raped her several times and had once held a knife to her throat

The following month, national authorities placed Ubeda and her children in a shelter, where they remained until July 2024

The Court found that although the shelter placement may initially have prevented further escalation of the violence, it ultimately placed a heavier burden on Ubeda and the children than on the alleged perpetrator, who was not subjected to comparable restrictions

The Court was especially critical of the prosecutor’s reasoning. In November 2021, the prosecutor sought to discontinue the criminal proceedings, dismissing the alleged knife-to-throat incident as a “bad joke” and reasoning that proving Ubeda’s lack of sexual consent was difficult because “it [was] normal for men to have to overcome a minimum level of resistance that every wom[a]n tend[ed] to display when she [was] tired from daily life and a man [made] a sexual advance.” The Court found that this reflected a sexist and stereotyped culture and subjected Ubeda to secondary victimization