"This is a war against women," says Kalliopi Mingeirou, chief of the ending violence against women section at U.N. Women.
She is talking about a new report that estimates 85,000 cases of femicide in 2023 — instances where a woman is targeted because of her gender, either killed by an intimate partner, a close relative, a rapist or a stranger who is randomly assaulting females.
The report finds that the majority of those women — 51,100 — were killed by a husband, partner or family member.
Those figures are likely undercounts because many countries around the world don't collect data on femicide.
The report also notes that femicide numbers are high despite laws meant to prevent them. South Africa has some of the most progressive laws on violence against women but one of the highest rates of femicide, according to Ronel Koekemoer, an operations manager at Gender Rights In Tech, a group that seeks justice for murdered women. In 2020, 5.5 women per 100,000 were killed by an intimate partner.
Koekemoer, who has also worked with survivors of sexual violence, says she has repeatedly seen the failure of the legal system to protect women.
"I can't tell you how many times when the perpetrator would get bail, the survivor was basically told by the prosecutor, it's got a lot to do with the capacity in holding cells and in the prisons, and ... that's more of the consideration than the survivor's actual safety," Koekemoer says.
Despite the grim findings in the report, the U.N.'s Mingeirou says some countries have also seen incremental progress in protecting women and girls.
Here are three takeaways from the report:
Femicide is a universal problem
Women and girls were victims of femicide everywhere in the world, the report shows. But some places have higher numbers and rates.
In 2023, Africa had the greatest regional number of intimate partner/family-related femicides: 21,700. It also had the highest rate of femicides: 2.9 per 100,000 of its female population.
The Americas had a lower number of intimate partner/family related femicides — 8,300 — but the second highest rate: 1.6 per 100,000 women.
"If you look at Central America, some of the most important reasons why women migrate, especially with their children, is because of the fear of femicide," says Beatriz Garcia Nice, who lives in Ecuador and leads the Project on Gender Based Violence at the Wilson Center, a non-partisan think tank.
Europe had the lowest rate of violence per female population — 0.6 per 100,000 women. Researchers say gender equality there leads to more financial independence for women. "That helps women be more capable to distance themselves from situations that might put them in danger," Nice says.
Why laws don't always bring Justice
There are studies from several countries which show that many women who were killed had previously reported violence from their intimate partners to the police.
For example, the National Directorate of the Judicial Police in France looked at intimate partner femicide cases between 2019-2022. According to their findings, in 37% of those cases the woman who was killed had suffered previous violence at the hands of their partner. And only in 7% of those instances had a restraining order been issued for the male partner.
This lack of regard for ongoing threats is a recurring theme in other countries too, says Kalliopi Mingeirou.
"The police were ignoring these calls, dismissing the need of these women to have help and assistance, and in the end, [the women] got killed," she says.
Lack of enforcement of existing laws is a major hurdle. Mexico has some of the strongest laws on femicide and gender-based violence, according to Beatriz Garcia Nice.
"Yet it's one of the most violent countries for women," she says. "In Mexico, between 2018 and 2020, 93% of known femicide cases were not prosecuted. That's insane."
That lack of follow-up has led women to mistrust the system and not report cases of violence, she says — because they know the perpetrator won't be prosecuted.
"Impunity is really pervasive," says Mingeirou. "Because women do not trust that they will get justice through the police and judicial systems."
In South Africa, Ronel Koekemoer says she's seen how perpetrators take advantage of gaps in enforcement.
"Then there's no incentive for them to stop their violent behavior," Koekemoer says. "At worst, it's almost like an inconvenience for the perpetrator more than it's a deterrent. And that, I think, is terrifying."
It's not only a lack of enforcement that creates high impunity for perpetrators of femicide. There are social and cultural elements at play. Koekemoer knows of a case where a woman was beaten to death by her husband — she says he confessed in a drunken phone call to an aunt. But then, she says, he paid family members to keep silent – even though she tried to convince them to go to the police.
Small signs of progress
Faced with an increase of violence against women, the government of Ecuador has collaborated with local and global organizations, including the U.N., to create more shelters for women at risk of violence in their home.
And in Colombia, a crisis manager now looks at reports of gender-based violence so the police and social services are working together.
But Mingeirou, Nice and Koekemoer all say a lot of work needs to be done to address the root causes of femicide.
"It's a bottom-up approach, and that's what makes it so difficult, because it starts from the home," Nice says. "It starts from giving the same amount of chores to a boy and a girl."
"We really have to ask everyone to play his her own role to bring gender equality and to address violence against women and girls," Mingeirou says.
"Support your local women's rights organization, become a part of the advocacy. Be a bystander and intervene when you hear sexist comments. All of us have a role to play, and we have to do it together in order to have a world which is equal, just and free of violence."
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