Every 10 minutes, a woman was killed by a partner or family member somewhere in the world in 2024, a UN Women and UN Office on Drugs and Crime study has revealed.
The report, released on Tuesday to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, defines femicide as the “most brutal and extreme manifestation” of violence against women and girls.
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The report shows that approximately 50,000 women and girls worldwide were killed by intimate partners or other family members in 2024, including fathers, mothers, uncles, and brothers, implying that an average of 137 women or girls are killed every day by someone in their family.
“Current and former intimate partners are by far the most likely perpetrators of femicide, accounting for an average of 60 percent of all intimate partner and family-related killings,” it said.
The study found that Africa has the highest number of female intimate partner and family-related killings, with an estimated 22,600 victims. The lowest figures were reported in Asia and Europe.
Researchers emphasised that femicide is a global crisis affecting women and girls all over the world.
“Behind each number, there is a woman or girl whose life has been brutally ended because of male violence, misogyny, and social norms that tolerate and perpetuate violence against women and girls,” the study stated.
Women in politics, human rights defenders, and journalists are often faced with deliberate acts of violence, with some leading to death and intentional killings, according to the report.
According to the Asia-Pacific survey, one out of every four women journalists globally and one in three women parliamentarians received online death threats or threats of physical violence.
The survey also shows that femicide occurs five times more frequently among Indigenous women in Canada than among non-Indigenous women.
According to the study, three out of four femicide victims had previously been stalked by the perpetrator.
“Technology is also being used to exercise coercive control and surveillance prior to cases of femicides,” researchers stated, adding that an increasing number of victims were killed as a result of their online presence.
The study reveals that roughly four out of every 10 murders of women and girls cannot be classified as femicide due to national variations in criminal justice recording and investigation practices.
“While the numbers presented in the report are alarmingly high, they are the tip of the iceberg,” researchers underlined, adding that “too many” victims of femicide still go uncounted.
Femicide is “a culmination” of repeated and escalating episodes of gender-based violence that can be prevented in its early stages.
“Initiatives that focus on primary prevention, changing social norms, and engaging whole communities to create zero tolerance for violence against women work best in preventing gender-related killings,” researchers said, stressing the role of the police and justice sectors in the problem-solving process.
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