According to new UN data, the home, once a safe haven for women, has become one of the most dangerous places for them. In 2023, men intentionally killed 85,000 women and girls, with intimate relationships or family members responsible for 60% of these fatalities. This corresponds to roughly 140 women and girls dying every day.
This report highlights the global epidemic of femicide, emphasising that the vast majority of these terrible fatalities occur within the home. This stark reality calls into question the notion of the house as a safe haven, revealing the widespread threat of gender-based violence.
The alarming trend of intimate partner violence and family-related killings continues to rise especially in Africa, which emerged as the region with the highest rates of such femicides, followed by the Americas and Oceania.
The report also highlights the critical issue of data collection, with many countries lacking reliable statistics on femicide. This data gap hinders efforts to understand the full extent of the problem and develop effective prevention strategies. However, available data from countries like France, South Africa, and Colombia indicates that a significant proportion of women killed by intimate partners had previously reported violence to authorities.
Based on our research on femicide in Nigeria, we were able to gather 95 cases of femicide reported in the country from January 2024 to October 2024. A total of 34 (35.8%) of these were intimate partner violence while 11 (11.6%) of these were reported as domestic violence meaning that the woman was killed by a family member (father, son, brother, inlaw, uncle, cousin, etc.).
Several cases of femicide in the country have sparked different protests and led to the creation of hashtags on social media with the notion of seeking justice and creating more awareness on this issue. This was seen in the cases of #JusticeforAusta, and #Osinachi, who were women who were killed by their intimate partners.
The Nigerian government must recognise the urgent need to address femicide and implement new laws and policies aimed at preventing violence against women. They must stop treating cases of domestic violence in most states as a domestic issue and start treating it as a criminal issue.
This is already made possible through the work of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (LagosDVSA) and we hope that it is replicated in all states.
The horrifying numbers revealed by the UN Women Study need an immediate worldwide response. To truly address the epidemic, we must prioritize data collecting, invest in victim support programs, develop legal frameworks, and advocate for gender equality and social justice. Only through concerted efforts at the individual, communal, and political levels will we be able to establish a world free of fear and violence for all women.
Let us remember the countless women who died as a result of femicide by taking real actions to prevent similar tragedies in the future. That way we ensure that every woman can live freely in their home without fear of violence and death.
