One woman killed every 10 minutes, says UN report on gender violence

On Monday, the United Nations on the 25th anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women(UNITE), drew attention over femicide and the alarming escalation of violence against women, saying that one woman was killed every 10 minutes.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “The epidemic of violence against women and girls shames humanity.”

"The world must heed this call. We need urgent action for justice and accountability, and support for advocacy,” he added.

The report further stated that ‘femicide transcends borders, socioeconomic statuses, and cultures, but its severity varies regionally’.

The numbers mentioned in the report further stated that the highest number of femicides (21,700 women were killed in 2023), wherein the woman was either killed by a family member or an intimate partner was in Africa, followed by the Americas and Oceania.

In Europe, 64 percent of the victims were killed by their close partners, followed by the Americas with 58 percent. Women in Asia and Africs were more likely killed by their family members than their partners.

The report further asserted that only 37 countries have reported femicide issues in the year 2023. Thus, the lack of comprehensive data, despite the alarming number of cases, is still a big challenge on the whole leading to hampering efforts to monitor the trends for these crimes and enforce accountability.

The need for systematic data collection in order to address the issue of violence against women was stressed upon by UN Women and UNODC.

This needs to be done to ‘inform policy, track progress, and ensure governments remain accountable for their commitments to gender equality’, the report said.

UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous said, “Violence against women and girls is not inevitable—it is preventable.”

She also emphasised on the need of the hour which is robust legislation, a better and improved process of data collection, greater accountability of the government, a zero-tolerance culture and funds to be increased in women’s rights organizations and other related institutional bodies.