One woman or partner killed by partner or family member every 10 mins: UN report

New York: One woman or girl is killed by a partner or family member almost every 10 minutes, an average of 137 every day, according to new data released by the UN.

In its report released on Monday, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women said that femicide continues to take the lives of tens of thousands of women and girls worldwide, with no sign of real progress.

“Last year, 83,000 women and girls were killed intentionally. Of them, 60 percent – 50,000 women and girls – were killed at the hands of intimate partners or family members,” the report said.

This means one woman or girl is killed by a partner or family member almost every 10 minutes – an average of 137 every day, it said.

In contrast, just 11 percent of male homicides were perpetrated by intimate partners or family members during the same year, it added.

“The home remains a dangerous and sometimes lethal place for too many women and girls around the world,” said John Brandolino, acting Executive Director of UNODC.

Brandolino stresses the need for better prevention strategies and criminal justice responses to femicide, ones that account for the conditions that propagate this extreme form of violence.

Sarah Hendriks, Director of UN Women’s Policy Division, highlighted the threat of online violence. 

She said that digital violence often doesn’t stay online and it can escalate offline and, in the worst cases, contribute to lethal harm, including femicide.

Women and girls are subjected to this extreme form of violence in every region worldwide.

It is estimated that the highest rate of femicide by an intimate-partner/family member was in Africa (3 per 1,00,000 female population), followed by the Americas (1.5), Oceania (1.4), Asia (0.7) and Europe (0.5).

Though femicides are also committed outside of the home, the amount of data remains limited, it said. 

Though the nearly 50,000 women and girls killed in the private sphere in 2024 is lower than the 2023 estimate of 51,100 victims, this change is largely due to differences in data availability at the country level and is not indicative of an actual decrease, it said.