United Nations – A disturbing new report released by the United Nations reveals that approximately 50,000 women were killed by relatives in 2024, translating to one woman every 10 minutes. The report expresses concern over the lack of significant progress in combating femicide globally.
According to the joint report by UN Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), a staggering 83,000 women and girls were intentionally killed worldwide last year. This data was released in conjunction with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
The report highlights that 60% of these killings, or 50,000 women and girls, were perpetrated by intimate partners or family members, averaging 137 deaths per day. In stark contrast, only 11% of male homicide victims were killed by similar perpetrators.
While the overall number is slightly lower than in 2023, the report cautions against interpreting this as a genuine decrease in violence against women, attributing the variation primarily to inconsistencies in data availability across different countries. The issue persists across all continents, with Africa reporting the highest number of cases last year, totaling approximately 22,000.
Sarah Hendriks, Director of the Policy Division at UN Women, emphasized that femicides are not isolated incidents but often the culmination of a continuum of violence. This includes controlling behaviors, threats, and harassment, both online and offline.
“To prevent these killings, we need to implement laws that recognize how violence manifests in the lives of women and girls, whether online or offline, and hold perpetrators accountable before it escalates to homicide,” Hendriks stated.
John Brandolino, Officer-in-Charge of UNODC, echoed this sentiment, stressing the need to improve prevention strategies and criminal justice responses to femicide. “The home remains a dangerous, and sometimes deadly, place for many women and girls around the world,” he concluded.
