The United Nations has recently reported that in 2024, every 10 minutes, a woman or girl was killed by an intimate partner or family member.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women, in a report on femicide released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, stated that last year 83,000 women and girls were intentionally killed.
According to the report, 60 percent — that is, 50,000 women and girls — were killed by their intimate partners or family members, meaning an average of 137 women were killed each day.
The organization emphasized that, in contrast, only 11 percent of men’s homicides are committed by partners or family members.
Sarah Hendriks, Director of Policy at UN Women, said: “The killing of women does not happen in a vacuum; it is often the culmination of a pattern of violence that begins with controlling behavior, threats, and harassment, including online.”
She added that this year’s 16 Days of Activism campaign highlights that digital violence does not remain confined to the online space; it can spill into the real world and, in the worst cases, lead to deadly harm, including femicide.
She stressed the need for early intervention by political systems and said that, to prevent these killings, laws must be implemented that address how violence emerges in the lives of women and girls—both online and offline—and ensure perpetrators are held accountable long before this violence becomes fatal.
John Brandolino, Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, also said: “The home remains a dangerous and sometimes deadly place for too many women and girls around the world… We need better strategies for prevention and more effective criminal justice responses.”
The UN report shows that women and girls in all regions of the world are exposed to this form of violence.
Estimates show that the highest rate of femicide by intimate partners or family members—three per 100,000 women and girls—occurs in Africa.
The organization added that the Americas, Oceania, Asia, and Europe follow respectively.
