ISLAMABAD: Globally, 85,000 women and girls were killed intentionally in 2023, 60 per cent of these homicides — 51,000 — were committed by an intimate partner or other family member; while 140 women and girls die every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative, which means one woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes, reveals a report on femicides released on Monday.

The report, “Femicides in 2023: Global Estimates of Intimate Partner/Family Member Femicides” jointly produced by UN Women and UN Office for Drug and Crime, was released to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, observed on Monday.

According to the report, a vast majority of intentional killings of women and girls worldwide are perpetrated by intimate partners or other family members.

This suggests that the home remains the most dangerous place for women and girls in terms of the risk of lethal victimisation. Women and girls everywhere continue to be affected by this extreme form of gender-based violence and no region is excluded.

With an estimated 21,700 victims of intimate partner/family member femicide in 2023, Africa is the region with the highest number of victims in aggregate terms. Moreover, Africa continues to account for the highest number of victims of intimate partner/family member femicide relative to the size of its population.

The Americas and Oceania also recorded high rates of intimate partner/family member femicide in 2023, at 1.6 and 1.5 per 100,000 respectively, while the rates were significantly lower in Asia and Europe, at 0.8 and 0.6 per 100,000, respectively.

UN report says 85,000 women, girls killed intentionally in 2023

The intentional killing of women in the private sphere in Europe and in the Americas is largely committed by intimate partners. Out of all women killed by intimate partners or other family members in those two regions in 2023, 64pc were murdered by their intimate partners in Europe and 58pc in the Americas.

Over the past two decades, the number of countries reporting data on the killing of women and girls by intimate partners or other family members increased slowly. The number peaked in 2020 at 75 countries, but subsequently decreased and by 2023 was half the number in 2020. Furthermore, at present only a few countries are able to produce data on forms of femicide committed outside the domestic sphere in compliance with the UNODC-UN Women Statistical framework for measuring gender-related killings.

Even though men and boys account for the vast majority of homicide victims, women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected by lethal violence in the private sphere.

An estimated 80pc of all homicide victims in 2023 were men while 20pc were women, but lethal violence within the family takes a much higher toll on women than men, with almost 60 per cent of all women who were intentionally killed in 2023 being victims of intimate partner/family member homicide.

Violence in the family sphere can target both sexes but just 12pc of all male homicides in 2023, by contrast, were attributed to killings by intimate partners or other family members.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2024