Intimate partners or other family members committed nearly 6 out of 10 murders of women in 2021, according to the UN.
The rate, 56%, is five times that of men: 11% of homicides against men occur in the private sphere, according to a report released on the eve of November 25, which marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women .
“While the overwhelming majority of male homicides occur outside the private sphere, for women and girls, the most dangerous place is the home”, points out the UN.
In 2021, an estimated 45,000 women and girls worldwide were killed by their partners or other family members. This means that, in the world, on average, more than five women or girls are killed every hour by someone from their own family.
The estimate is that 81,100 women and girls were intentionally killed in 2021. And the UN points out that the total number of female homicides has remained virtually unchanged in the last decade.
Women from all regions of the world are victims of violence committed by a partner or other family member. Africa is the region that has the highest level of this type of violence in proportion to the total number of women, and Asia is the region with the highest absolute number, according to the report.
Of the approximately 45,000 deaths, 17,800 occurred in Asia, 17,200 in Africa, 7,500 in the Americas, 2,500 in Europe and 300 in Oceania. The homicide rates of this type per 100,000 women are: 2.5 in Africa, 1.4 in the Americas, 1.2 in Oceania, 0.8 in Asia and 0.6 in Europe.
The UN points out that the problem may be greater, as many victims end up not being counted as cases of femicide – gender-related murder of women and girls. For around 4 in 10 women or girls intentionally murdered in 2021, there was not enough information to qualify the crime as feminicide, especially when the crime took place in a public sphere.
The murder of women and girls in these circumstances is usually preceded by other types of violence – such as physical, sexual or emotional abuse –, warn experts.
The UN points out that gender-related murders of women and girls may be motivated by stereotypical gender roles, discrimination, unequal power relations between women and men in society. This means that they can occur in different situations, both in the private and in the public sphere.
Some examples are: intimate partner violence, rape followed by murder, so-called “honor crimes”, murders of women accused of witchcraft, human trafficking and other forms of organized crime.
UN Women says that “it is possible and necessary to prevent these deaths by identifying women affected by violence early, giving them access to a support center and protecting survivors, ensuring that the police and the justice system are more proactive in responding to the needs of the victims”.
It also adds that it is necessary to reinforce data collection in cases of femicides and that another aspect is primary prevention that attacks the root causes of violence against girls and women, including the fight against the so-called toxic masculinity, social norms and elimination of gender inequality and stereotypes.
Data from the Brazilian Public Security Forum indicate that, in Brazil, a woman was the victim of femicide every 7 hours in 2021.
The organization points out that a total of 1,319 feminicides were recorded in 2021, a 2.4% decrease in the number of victims registered compared to the previous year. There were 32 victims of feminicide less than in 2020, when 1,351 women were killed.
An analysis of monthly data on feminicides in Brazil between 2019 and 2021 indicates that there was an increase in cases between February and May 2020, when there was greater restriction on social isolation measures.
This text was originally published here.
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