The latest report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women, released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, shows that feminicide is increasing around the world.
This is what you need to know about feminicide.
Femicide versus homicide
Femicide is defined as intentional homicide with gender motivation. It is different from homicide, where the motivation may not be related to gender.
Femicide is driven by discrimination against women and girls, unequal power relations, gender stereotypes or harmful social norms.
Actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu joins UN Women India with the aim of ending digital violence against women and girls.
It can occur at home, in workplaces, in schools, or in public spaces and online. It can be caused by intimate partner violence, sexual harassment and violence, harmful practices and trafficking.
Family and couple violence
In 2024, around 50,000 women and girls worldwide were killed by their intimate partners or other family members, including fathers, mothers, uncles and brothers; that’s an average of 137 women or girls every day.
Current and former intimate partners are by far the most likely perpetrators of feminicide, accounting for an average of 60 percent of all family-related murders.
Beyond family
Gender-related murders take place in many contexts beyond the private sphere.
They may be related to rape or sexual violence by someone unknown to the victim.
Femicide can be linked to harmful practices such as female genital mutilation or so-called honor crimes or the result of hate crimes linked to sexual orientation or gender identity.
It is often linked to armed conflict, gangs, human trafficking and other forms of organized crime.
world problem
Femicide is a global crisis that affects women and girls in all countries.
In 2024, Africa recorded the highest number of murders of women by intimate partners and family members, with an estimated 22,600 victims (3 victims per 100,000).
“No more feminicides,” reads this graffiti, scrawled on a wall in Mexico City, where public outcry against gender-based murders has been increasing.
The Americas and Oceania also recorded high rates of family-related feminicide (1.5 and 1.4 per 100,000 respectively), while rates were significantly lower in Asia and Europe (0.7 and 0.5 per 100,000 respectively).
UN Women says the numbers are “alarmingly high” but has warned that the true magnitude of feminicide “is probably much higher” due to lack of reporting.
Groups at risk
Women in public life, including politicians, journalists, and human rights and environmental defenders, face escalating violence both online and offline.
Technology-facilitated violence, such as cyberbullying, coercive control, and image-based abuse, can escalate offline and, in some cases, lead to femicide.
Social networks can allow cyberbullying.
One in four female journalists globally and a third of parliamentarians in Asia and the Pacific have received death threats online.
In 2022, the deaths of 81 women environmental defenders and 34 women human rights defenders were reported.
Indigenous women also face disproportionate risks and transgender women face an increase in targeted killings around the world.
Why are femicides increasing?
The rise in feminicide is being driven by persistent gender inequality, norms of discrimination, and escalating violence in conflict and displacement environments.
Limited liability, weak protection systems and online harassment further increase the risks.
Crises, economic insecurity and the reduction of civic spaces also intensify lethal violence against women and girls.
What is the UN doing to prevent it?
The UN works to prevent feminicide by strengthening legal frameworks, supporting survivor-centered services, and improving data collection.
SDG Goal 5: Gender equality.
It assists states in prevention strategies, trains law enforcement agencies, monitors violations, and supports public campaigns that challenge harmful regulations.
Goal 5 of the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals, which relates to gender equality, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by UN Member States, are two key international instruments that address gender-based violence.