Every 11 minutes a woman or girl is murdered by a relative

Ground Report | New Delhi: Every 11 minutes a woman is murdered; Around the world, 81,000 women and girls were murdered in 2020 and 47,000 (58%) were killed by an intimate partner or family member, one every 11 minutes, a report by the Office of the United Nations Against Drugs and Crime (UNODC) disclosed.

Every 11 minutes a woman is murdered

"Although eight out of 10 homicide victims are men or boys, women and girls are the main victims of lethal domestic violence in all parts of the world," observed UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly. Six out of 10 murders by intimate partners or other family members are victimized by a woman or a girl.

UNODC research “shows that the situation has not improved over the last decade, even in places where deadly violence, in general, has decreased. Urgent and specific actions are needed to empower and protect women and girls, prevent gender-based violence and save lives, ”said Waly.

The report, framed within the 16 days of the international campaign for the elimination of violence against women, which began on November 25, collected data from 95 countries on murders by gender of women and girls committed by intimate partners or relatives.

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Global outcry

The murders of women and girls by relatives, according to the study, were 18,600 in Asia, 18,100 in Africa, 7,300 in America, 2,600 in Europe, and 300 in Oceania. In relative terms, there were 2.7 of these crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in Africa, 1.6 in Oceania, 1.4 in America, 0.8 in Asia, and 0.7 in Europe.

“Women and girls are the main victims of lethal violence in the home in all parts of the world,” Ghada Waly said. Global data on the impact of lockdowns or confinements due to the covid-19 pandemic, on the murders of women and girls for gender reasons, remain irregular and inconclusive, according to the analysis.

Between 2019 and 2020, the annual average of these murders showed a slight increase in both Europe and America, with differences in different regions. However, these changes were similar in size to the previous annual changes recorded in the last decade.

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Monthly data on women and girls killed by intimate partners or relatives received from 14 countries in different regions of the world show high variability in trends between countries in the various waves of covid-related mobility restrictions in 2020.

domestic emergency

An important conclusion of the report is that “lethal violence suffered by women in the private sphere appears to be a more insoluble problem than lethal violence outside the home”. (Every 11 minutes a woman is murdered)

These data “suggest that positive contextual developments and policies and interventions that are successful in reducing lethal violence in the public sphere may not be sufficient to achieve the same reductions in gender-based killings within the family”, he pointed. The report.

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UNODC, also known by the acronym UNODC, believes that aggressive relative protection or restraining orders work when they are quick, easy, and accessible and if they are part of a larger package to protect women and girls, including confidential and domestic emergency phone lines havens of violence.

Along with services to address domestic violence, measures such as gun control, divorce, and accessible criminal justice must work, responding to the needs of victims and survivors, and sending a clear message to society about the severity of such. crimes, the report concluded.

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