Approximately 51,100 women and girls were killed by their intimate partners or other family members globally last year, compared to 48,800 deaths reported the previous year, 2022.

According to research by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), this figure means that 60 per cent of the almost 85,000 women and girls killed intentionally during the year were murdered by their intimate partners or other family members.

This implies that an average of 140 women and girls worldwide lost their lives every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative.

“Women and girls everywhere continue to be affected by this extreme form of gender-based violence and no region is excluded. With an estimated 21,700 victims of intimate partner/family-related femicide in 2023, Africa is the region with the highest number of victims in aggregate terms,” the report states.

Intimate partner

It further states that Africa continues to account for the highest number of victims of intimate partner/family-related femicide relative to the size of its population (2.9 victims per 100,000 in 2023). The Americas and Oceania also recorded high rates of such cases last year, at 1.6 and 1.5 per 100,000 respectively, while the rates were significantly lower in Asia and Europe, at 0.8 and 0.6 per 100,000 respectively. The UNODC also warned that beyond the killing of women and girls by intimate partners or other family members, other forms of femicide exist.

Gender-based killings

In recent years, some countries have begun to quantify other forms of femicide by implementing the UNODC-UN Women Statistical framework for measuring gender-based killings.

In France, for example, during the period 2019–2022, 79 per cent of all female homicides were committed by intimate partners or other family members, while other forms of femicide accounted for an additional 5 per cent of all female homicides.

Similarly, exploratory research in South Africa indicates that femicides outside the domestic sphere accounted for 9 per cent of total female homicides in 2020–2021.

The report further states that there is need to ensure that the prevention of domestic violence addresses intimate relationships as well as family contexts where women are at higher risk.

Data from most regions confirm that most victims had previously reported some form of physical, sexual or psychological violence by their partner.

“This suggests that many killings of women are preventable. Restraining orders on male partners that prohibit further contact between them and the victims of their violence are among the measures that could prevent the killing of women,” the report states. Concerns have been raised following reports that over the past two decades, the number of countries reporting data on the killing of women and girls by intimate partners or other family members increased slowly.