Rabat – A new UN report on global gender-based violence revealed a staggering increase in family-related killings, with an alarming average of more than 133 girls losing their lives every day at the hands of their own family members in 2022.
The report, developed by UN Women and the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime, indicated that the data represents the highest yearly number recorded in the past two decades.
Approximately 89,000 women and girls worldwide fell victim to intentional killings last year, marking an unsettling peak in gender-motivated violence.
The report indicated that most of these killings, approximately 48,800 cases, were motivated by gender, with women and girls facing the highest risk within the confines of their homes.
Men and boys remain among the vast majority of homicide victims across the world, representing 80% of victims. However, women and girls are disproportionately affected by homicidal violence in the private sphere.
“For women and girls, the most dangerous place is the home,” the report said.
While the overall number of homicides globally has started to decline in 2022 following a spike in 2021, the number of female homicides is alarmingly on the rise.
Women and girls represent 53% of all victims of killings in the home and a staggering 66% of victims in intimate partner homicides.
Even more concerning is the fact that this pervasive violence is not limited to a particular region, as it affects women and girls across the globe.
Africa’s alarming femicide peak
Africa, for the first time since 2013, has surpassed Asia in the number of victims, with an estimated 20,000 women and girls falling victim to family-related killings in 2022.
This equates to 2.8 victims per 100,000 women, making Africa the region with the highest number of victims relative to its female population.
Meanwhile, Europe has shown signs of improvement, witnessing an average reduction of 21% in female intimate partner and family-related homicides between 2010 and 2022. However, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to setbacks, especially in Western and Southern Europe.
The Americas exhibited diverging trends, with Central and South America experiencing a decline in yearly killings, while North America saw a significant increase of 29%. Meanwhile, the Caribbean recorded an increase of 8%.
Limited data availability in Africa, Asia, and Oceania hampered the ability to establish clear trends, leaving a concerning level of uncertainty regarding the prevalence of family-related killings in these regions.
The report shed light on the gradual improvement in global data availability on gender-related killings, with the UN system urging member states to enhance data collection and reporting.
While 74 countries had at least one data point on female intimate partner and family-related homicide in the period 2009-2015, this increased to 99 countries in the period 2016-2022.
