UNITED NATIONS: Every 10 minutes last year, a woman somewhere in the world was killed by someone close to her, the United Nations said on Monday as it condemned a lack of progress in the fight against femicide.
Around 50,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members in 2024, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women said in a report released to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
The report said 60% of women killed around the world were murdered by partners or relatives such as fathers, uncles, mothers and brothers. In comparison, 11% of male homicide victims were killed by someone close to them.
The figure of 50,000 – based on data from 117 countries – breaks down to 137 women per day, or about one woman every 10 minutes, the report said.
The overall number is slightly lower than the number reported in 2023, although it does not indicate a real decline, according to the report, as it largely stems from differences in data availability from country to country.
Femicide continues to claim tens of thousands of lives for women and girls each year, with no signs of improvement, and “the home remains the most dangerous place for women and girls in terms of the risk of murder,” the study said.
No region in the world went without femicide, but Africa again had the largest number last year with around 22,000, the report said.
“Femicides do not happen in isolation. They often sit on a continuum of violence that can start with controlling behavior, threats and harassment – including online,” Sarah Hendricks, director of the UN Women’s Policy Division, said in a statement.
The report said technological advances have exacerbated some forms of violence against women and girls and created others, such as non-consensual image sharing, doxxing and deepfake videos.
“We need the implementation of laws that recognize how violence manifests across women’s and girls’ lives, both online and offline, and hold perpetrators to account well before it turns deadly,” Hendricks said.
