One woman dies every ten minutes from domestic violence, UN reports

No fewer than fifty thousand women and girls were murdered by their relatives in 2024, meaning one lost their life every ten minutes, according to figures released today by the UN, which criticized the lack of “real progress” in the fight against femicide.

Last year, 83,000 women and girls became victims of intentional homicide worldwide, CE Report quotes ANA-MPA.

Of these, 60% were killed by their partner or a family member, according to a report prepared by UN Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Around 50,000 women and girls were murdered by their partner or a close relative (father, uncle, brother, or even mother). In other words, 137 women were killed each day, or one every ten minutes.

This estimate, based on statistical analysis from 117 countries, is slightly lower than in 2023 (51,100), but “the change does not indicate a real reduction,” the report says, attributing the difference simply to variations in how countries record statistics.

On the contrary, the two UN agencies emphasized that the numbers “remain unchanged, despite long-standing global commitments.”

Femicide continues to claim the lives of tens of thousands of women and girls worldwide every year, “with no sign of real improvement,” and “the home remains the most dangerous place for women and girls” at risk.

Although women accounted for only 20% of homicide victims globally in 2024, 60% were killed in a private setting, compared with just 11% of male victims.

No region of the world is free from the problem, but Africa again recorded the highest number of femicide victims by someone close to them, approximately 22,000.

“Femicide does not occur out of nowhere. It is embedded in a cycle of violence that can begin with coercive control, threats, or harassment, including online,” said Sarah Hendricks, Director of Policy at UN Women, in the press release accompanying the report.

The report notes that the development of certain technologies has not only increased violence against women but has also created new forms, such as the publication of images and data without consent and the spread of videos known as “deepfakes,” created with artificial intelligence tools.

Online violence “is not limited to cyberspace. It can escalate offline and, in the worst cases, result in lethal harm, including femicide. To prevent these murders, it is essential to adopt laws that recognize the different forms of violence women and girls face, both online and offline, and hold perpetrators accountable before they become murderers,” Hendricks stressed.