137 women and girls murdered every day by partners or family members, says the UN

Last year, every 10 minutes a woman somewhere in the world was murdered by someone close to her, the United Nations said Monday, denouncing the lack of progress in the battle against feminicide.

Some 50,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members in 2024, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women said in a report released to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

The report found that 83,000 women and girls were killed intentionally in 2024. Sixty percent of those women were killed by partners or relatives such as fathers, uncles, mothers and brothers, according to the report.

By comparison, 11% of male murder victims were killed by someone close to them, although about 80% of all homicide victims in 2024 were men, according to the report.

The 50,000 figure, based on data from 117 countries, reduces to 137 women per day, or about one woman every 10 minutes, according to the report.

“The home remains a dangerous and sometimes deadly place for too many women and girls around the world,” said John Brandolino, acting executive director of UNODC, in a press release announcing the report.

The total is slightly lower than the figure reported in 2023, although it does not indicate an actual decrease, according to the report, as it is largely due to differences in data availability from country to country.

No region of the world was left without cases of feminicide committed by partners or family members. The highest rate was recorded in Africa, with 3 such cases per 100,000 women, followed by America, which recorded 1.5 such cases per 100,000 women. Oceania recorded 1.4 cases per 100,000 women, Asia had 0.7 and Europe recorded 0.5, according to the report.

“Femicides do not occur in isolation. They often fall on a continuum of violence that can begin with controlling behavior, threats and harassment, including online,” Sarah Hendricks, director of the Policy Division at UN Women, said in a statement.

The report says technological development has exacerbated some types of violence against women and girls and created others, such as non-consensual image sharing, doxxing and deepfake videos.

“We need the implementation of laws that recognize how violence manifests itself in the lives of women and girls, both online and offline, and that hold perpetrators accountable long before it becomes deadly,” Hendricks said.