According to the latest data from United Nations on femicide, at least five women and girls were killed every hour by a family member in 2021.
A report, published last week indicated that 45,000 women and girls – which represent more than half of the 81,100 murdered last year globally – were “killed by their husband, partner or other relative.”
UN Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said the figures were “alarmingly high”, but the true number of femicides – where women are killed because of their gender – is likely to be much higher.
“Roughly four in 10 deaths in 2021 were not counted as femicides because there was insufficient data,” Sarah Johnson writes.
Last year, the highest cases of femicides at the hands of relatives were recorded in Asia, with 17,800 deaths.
The research underscored “that women and girls in Africa, where the rate of gender-related killings in the home was estimated at 2.5 per 100,000 of the female population, were more at risk of being killed by family members.”
The research goes ahead to note that: “The onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020 coincided with a significant increase in femicides in North America and western and southern Europe.”
Ghada Waly, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said, “No woman or girl should fear for her life because of who she is.”
“To stop all forms of gender-related killings of women and girls, we need to count every victim, everywhere, and improve understanding of the risks and drivers of femicide so we can design better and more effective prevention and criminal justice responses,” she added.
Additionally, the research established that the overwhelming majority of homicides worldwide are committed against men and boys.
However, “they are most at risk of being killed by someone outside their family.” “Out of all male homicide victims in 2021, only about 11 per cent were killed by a partner or relative,” Johnson writes.
The annual 16 days of activism against gender-based violence started last week and will run up to December 10. 16 days of activism against SGBV is an annual campaign that calls for the end of violence against women.
This year, the United Nations marks the 16 Days under the theme: “UNiTE! Activism to end violence against women and girls”.
