DZWatch Exclusive: The United Nations has issued a stark warning regarding the persistent targeting of women worldwide, expressing deep concern over the lack of significant progress in combating femicide.
A report released by UN Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), coinciding with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, reveals alarming statistics. Last year alone, an estimated 83,000 women and girls were intentionally killed globally. Of these, approximately 50,000 – nearly 137 deaths per day, or one woman every ten minutes – were murdered by intimate partners or family members.
This estimate, derived from statistical analysis across 117 countries, shows a slight decrease from figures reported in 2023, but the UN clarifies that this change doesn’t necessarily reflect a genuine decline. The discrepancy is attributed to variations in data availability across different nations.
Both UN agencies lamented the stagnation of these figures despite years of global commitments. They emphasized that homicides continue to claim the lives of tens of thousands of women and girls worldwide, with no real signs of improvement. Disturbingly, the home remains the most dangerous place for women and girls in terms of homicide risk.
According to the report, women accounted for 20% of all homicide victims globally in 2024. Africa recorded the highest number of female homicide victims killed by family members, with approximately 22,000 cases. The report also highlights how technological advancements have exacerbated, and even created, new forms of violence against women, such as the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, personal data leaks, and the spread of AI-generated deepfake videos.
The UN report stresses that cyber violence is not confined to the online sphere; it can escalate offline, and in the worst cases, contribute to deadly harm, including femicide. To prevent these crimes, it is crucial to enact laws that recognize the various forms of violence women and girls face, both online and offline, and to hold perpetrators accountable before their actions turn deadly.
DZWatch will continue to monitor this developing situation and provide updates as they become available.
