Although general homicide rates are decreasing, ReliefWeb – a humanitarian information organisation run by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) – report that cases of femicide “have been rising continuously in the last two decades”.
Femicide is defined as the gender-related killing of women and girls, which the United Nations (UN) describes as “the most brutal and extreme manifestation of violence against women”. However, not all cases of femicide are fully accounted for, as ReliefWeb says not every nation or institution counts gender-based killing at all, or in the same way.
Recentlythe UN released a report that looked into femicide globally, which found “the number of countries reporting on femicides has decreased by 50% in the past five years” – which coincides with the data gap ReliefWeb had found – and sought to find out more statistics themselves.
What did the UN find?
The researchers learned that globally, 85,000 women were killed by men in cases of intentional femicide in 2023.
In 60% of those cases, the killer was close to them. In fact the UN’s press release says that one woman is killed by their intimate partner or a family member every ten minutes internationally.
By comparison, 12% of male homicides were committed within family or intimate partner relationships across the globe.
In Europe, 64% of femicides were from intimate partners rather than family members. This is not consistent worldwide; in some nations, family members are more likely to commit femicide.
Perhaps that’s why the report found that, in global terms, the most dangerous place for women is in our own homes.
“What the data is telling us is that it is the private and domestic spheres of women’s lives, where they should be safest, that so many of them are being exposed to deadly violence,” Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, UN Women’s deputy executive director, told The Guardian.
“Such motives are rooted in societal norms and stereotypes that consider women to be subordinate to men, as well as in discrimination towards women and girls, inequality and unequal power relations between women and men in society,” the report reads.
There are still huge gaps in our knowledge
There’s a gendered data gap in deaths across the world, the UN stressed.
“We need robust legislation, improved data collection, greater government accountability, a zero-tolerance culture, and increased funding for women’s rights organizations and institutional bodies,” UN Women Executive Director, Sima Bahous, wrote in a press release.
“Significant efforts to reverse the negative trend in terms of data availability would... increase government accountability for addressing violence against women,” the report continues.
Help and support:
If you, or someone you know, is in immediate danger, call 999 and ask for the police. If you are not in immediate danger, you can contact:
- The Freephone 24 hour National Domestic Violence Helpline, run by Refuge: 0808 2000 247
- In Scotland, contact Scotland’s 24 hour Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline: 0800 027 1234
- In Northern Ireland, contact the 24 hour Domestic & Sexual Violence Helpline: 0808 802 1414
- In Wales, contact the 24 hour Life Fear Free Helpline on 0808 80 10 800.
- National LGBT+ Domestic Abuse Helpline: 0800 999 5428
- Men’s Advice Line: 0808 801 0327
- Respect helpline (for anyone worried about their own behaviour): 0808 802 0321
