According to the latest Femicide Brief from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women, 85,000 women and girls were killed intentionally in 2023 across the globe, a reminder that the world is still struggling to address entrenched gender-based inequalities and violence.
Femicide refers to all types of intentional killings of women and girls committed for gender-related factors. As outlined by UNODC and UN Women, this can include the belief that men are entitled to more power or privilege than women, social expectations about how men should act, and the desire to maintain power or control, enforce traditional gender roles or punish women for so-called unacceptable behavior.
Femicide Reviews go beyond the prosecution of the killing. These reviews, which typically happen during or after a criminal case, entail an in-depth examination of all factors related to the killing, including previous interactions between victims/perpetrators and governmental and non-governmental agencies. They are carried out by a team of stakeholders from sectors like law enforcement, health care, child welfare and gender-based violence (GBV) services, often with the participation of families and social networks.
“The idea with a Femicide Review is to go beyond the decision of individual responsibility and look at the level of social responsibility,” says Patsilí Toledo, lead author of UNODC’s Background paper on Femicide Review Committees. “What were the unseen issues before this crime happened? What were the missed opportunities in contacting the victim or perpetrator? How can the responses by services – in the justice, social and healthcare sectors – be improved?”
The ultimate aim of the review is to identify issues and recommend changes to prevent future killings.
The 85,000 women and girls killed intentionally in 2022 represents the highest yearly number recorded in the past two decades. Women and girls in all regions experience this gender-based violence. Improving criminal justice, health care, and social sector responses is essential to reversing this trend.
Femicide Reviews involve a wide variety of stakeholders and can reveal information and learnings that go far beyond what criminal justice agencies and service providers know about the killing of a woman or a girl. In some countries, families and friends of the victims are given an opportunity to contribute to reviews, for example by helping to determine the scope of the review, sharing information and meeting with the review panel, contributing to final reports and advocating for change after the review.
Including voices from those who may not be heard otherwise – such as a former romantic partner, or perhaps a co-worker of a perpetrator who had witnessed obsessive behavior in the past – and transforming this knowledge into policy changes can help prevent future violence.
UNODC is working to enable women who experience violence to rely on available, accessible and quality crime prevention and criminal justice responses. In addition to supporting Femicide Reviews, UNODC provides global research and data on criminal justice responses to violence against women and helps to align national legislation and policy frameworks on violence against women with international standards. UNODC also helps develop the capacity of criminal justice systems to respond more promptly and effectively to violence against women and provide essential services to victims and survivors.
Examples of success include facilitating the creation of over 140 multi-sector GBV Response Teams and a new law on preventing domestic violence in Viet Nam; the reform of criminal laws on sexual violence in Nepal and a new GBV committee in the Office of Nepal’s Attorney General; a national coordination mechanism to counter GBV in Bolivia and a protocol with traditional leaders in South Africa for responding to violence against women.
