In a report released to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women said that some 50,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members in 2024, as it decried the lack of progress in the battle against femicide.
The report said 60 percent of women killed around the world were murdered by partners or relatives such as fathers, uncles, mothers, and brothers. In comparison, 11 percent of male murder 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 one woman every 10 minutes, the report said.
The total is slightly lower than the figure reported in 2023, though it does not indicate an actual decrease, according to the report, as it stems largely from differences in data availability from country to country.
Femicide continues to claim tens of thousands of lives of women and girls each year, with no sign of improvement, and the “home continues to be the most dangerous place for women and girls in terms of the risk of homicide,” the study said.
“Femicides don’t happen in isolation. They often sit on a continuum of violence that can start with controlling behavior, threats, and harassment – including online,” said Sarah Hendricks, Director of UN Women’s Policy Division.
The report added that technological development has exacerbated some kinds of violence against women and girls, and created others, such as non-consensual image sharing, doxing, and deepfake videos.
“We need the implementation of laws that recognize how violence manifests across the lives of women and girls, both online and offline, and hold perpetrators to account well before it turns deadly,” Hendricks said.
Tens of thousands of women and girls remain victims to femicide each year, and even if we cannot eliminate it entirely in one fell swoop, we can chip away at the problem by recognizing how violence manifests so interventions can be made before it turns deadly and irreversible. Eliminating such forms of violence doesn’t have to start at the end, but addressing the factors that contribute to it will also be key.*
