A woman is murdered every ten minutes by her partner or family around the world.

Women and girls are at greater risk of being murdered in the home, as shown by this data, which establishes that 60 percent of all homicides that have been committed in that period of time, a total of 51,100 people, have been perpetrated by people of their close circlewhile only 12 percent of homicides against men are committed in the private sphere.

«Femicide is a universal problem that affects all countries and regions. In 2023, Africa became the region with the highest number of victims of feminicide related to the couple or family, followed by regions such as the Americas and Oceania,” UN Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have indicated in a report released on the occasion of the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women.

This document has revealed that feminicide, the most extreme form of violence against women and girls, is a widespread problem throughout the world. In Europe and America, the majority of women murdered in the home (64 and 58 percent, respectively) have died at the hands of their coupleswhile in other places the main aggressors have been members of their family.

Victims in the world

In total, it is estimated that 21,700 women have been victims of feminicide in Africa, 18,500 in Asia, 8,300 in the Americas, 2,300 in Europe and 300 in Oceania. This makes homes the “most dangerous place for women.” In America, 58 percent of these femicides have been committed by the couple, a figure that is 64 percent in Europe and 41 percent in the rest of the world. At a global level, it is estimated that the 45 percent of these murders have been perpetrated by couples.

«Violence against women and girls can be avoided. We need strong laws, better data collection, greater government accountability, a culture of zero tolerance and more funding for women’s rights organizations and institutional bodies,” said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous.

Thus, he has urged to achieve “united global leadership that allows us to act urgently, renew our commitments and channel the necessary resources to end this crisis once and for all.”

For her part, the executive director of UNODC, Ghada Waly, has assured that this new report “highlights the urgent need to have strong judicial systems that ensure adequate support for survivors and include access to safe and transparent reporting mechanisms.”

“At the same time, we must confront and dismantle gender prejudices, power inequalities and harmful standards that perpetuate violence against women,” she said, before announcing that the ’16 Days of Activism’ campaign that is about to To begin with, it seeks precisely to call for action to “protect their lives.”

In this sense, he stated that the 2025 anniversary of the creation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the deadline established to meet the Sustainable Development Goals present a crucial opportunity to bring together all stakeholders “to take action.” decisive and urgent actions in favor of women’s rights and gender equality. “This includes measures that end impunity and prevent all forms of violence against women and girls,” he concluded.

Prevent femenicides

The report has advocated introducing measures essential to prevent this type of violence given the “alarmingly high” levels of femicides. These murders, he points out, “are often the culmination of episodes repeated of gender violence, which means that they are preventable through timely and effective interventions.”

«The ecological model has been proposed to explain the root causes of gender violence in the context of the implementation of prevention strategies. According to the model, different factors contribute to the perpetuation of the problem of gender violence at different levels: the individual, interpersonal relationships, community environments and society,” the document states.

Thus, it reflects the importance of primary prevention through a “change in social norms and attitudes of both women and men” through education. However, it also advocates the implementation of legal measures, forceful responses through judicial means, increased investigation and the implementation of public campaigns against this type of violence.

«Campaigns such as ‘not one less’ or ‘Mee Too’ have played a fundamental role in raising awareness among the population of these issues and have achieved widespread condemnation by society of behaviors that only perpetuate the violence based on gender issues,” he pointed out.