Femicide is still happening worldwide, with women being killed because they are female. These women are mostly targeted by their own families and partners and we are left to wonder if women will one day see a respite from this issue.
Most cases of femicide are not reported or documented. To address this issue, we created a monthly repository to document cases of femicide globally. This report serves as a vital data repository, that helps create awareness on the extent of this societal issue. It underscores the urgency for comprehensive measures to combat this pervasive problem, pushing for increased awareness, intervention, and support for victims.
Our figures are obtained from meticulous Google searches with targeted keywords to gather verified information from news outlets, human rights groups, and trusted media. The numbers do not represent all femicide cases globally. However, they do illustrate the harsh realities that women encounter and the problems related to femicide. The numbers in our report show important statistics and urge the world to come together to protect those who are most at risk. We also have some search limitations because we only source news in English language and some news is unavailable for access because of geographic location.
Our first report for July 2023 was published on August 11, 2023, and we found 94 cases in the news. Our last report for June 2024 found 129 cases in the news.
For a year, we searched the internet every day for news about femicide. We learned a lot about where femicide happens most. Do these areas have the necessary tools to accurately report femicide rates? Or are they simply labelled as hot zones without sufficient evidence?
Countries and Regions
We uncovered a staggering total of 1795 cases in 65 countries. The top 10 countries were the United States (862), India (399), the United Kingdom (58), South Africa (53), Nigeria (52), Kenya (46), Australia (43), Pakistan (34), Canada (33) and Cameroon (29).
Monthly Data
The month with the highest reported cases found was January 2024 with 244 cases followed by February 2024 with 234 cases. The months with the lowest were August 2023 (111) and July 2023 (94).
Violence
Intimate partner violence is the most common form of gender-based violence. 59.1 per cent of women aged 15 to 109 experience this type of violence. Domestic violence and non-intimate partner violence affected women/girls as young as a day old to as old as 109 years old.
Age of victim
Mostly, women aged 18-35 (34%) and 36-50 (17.2%) are most affected by femicide. The women most affected were 30 years old (70 cases).
Relationship
The lead perpetrators of this crime were husbands (673), boyfriends (279) and fathers (132) of these women. This shows that women are the most vulnerable to men in their lives compared to strangers. Also, there were 273 cases (15.2%) of murder-suicides in our report most committed by the partners of these women.
Cooking related cases
Often, when cooking is discussed in the media from a feminist perspective, it is seen as unimportant. Sadly, in our report, 9 women were killed by their partners for reasons like not cooking, serving food late, or giving the wrong food.
Casualties
Women, especially in the United States, are more likely to be killed during pregnancy or soon after childbirth than to die from the three leading obstetric causes of maternal death (high blood pressure disorders, haemorrhage, or sepsis), say experts in the BMJ today. In our findings, a total of 35 pregnant women were victims of femicide.
The question remains: When do women cease being victims of gender-based violence, regardless of age? Can they find justice even in the grave? Why do their perpetrators roam freely, unaccountable for their heinous actions even when evidence has been presented?
Ingrained patriarchal norms and inequality contribute to the increasing rates of femicide worldwide. The United Nations grimly acknowledges that we are far from achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 5) (on female equality and empowerment) as we approach the halfway mark in the race to meet the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In 2018, one in every seven women (13 per cent of women aged 15 to 49) reported experiencing physical and sexual violence from an intimate partner or husband in the preceding 12 months.
We must continue to speak up against femicide and ensure that our outrage translates to actions and implementation of policies that promote the safety of women all over the world.
To ensure that this conversation continues in the media, we are focusing on reporting femicide and gender-based violence reports in Nigeria. The one-year worldwide report was used to develop a structure that will aid us in documenting cases in Nigeria and hopefully build a reliable database for the country.
