United Nations 2024 report released on Monday says a woman is killed every 10 minutes by someone close to her, underscoring the ongoing global emergency of femicide.
The joint report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Womenestimates that approximately 50,000 women and girls lost their lives at the hands of intimate partners or family members last year.
Data from 117 countries indicates that this amounts to 137 women per day, or roughly one every 10 minutes.
The study finds that 60 percent of all women killed globally were targeted by intimate partners or relatives, such as spouses, fathers, brothers, or other family members.
In contrast, only 11 percent of male homicide victims are killed by people close to them.
Although the 2024 figure is slightly lower than the previous year’s, the report cautions that this does not represent real progress, as the change is mostly due to differences in country-level data reporting.
“Femicide continues to claim tens of thousands of lives each year, with no sign of improvement. The home remains the most dangerous place for women and girls,” the report stated. Africa recorded the highest regional number, with an estimated 22,000 deaths in 2024.
Director of UN Women’s Policy Division, Sarah Hendricks, stressed that femicide is rarely an isolated act. “These tragedies often fall on a continuum of violence that may begin with controlling behavior, threats, and harassment—including online,” she said.
The report also warns about the increasing role of digital abuse, citing non-consensual image-sharing, doxxing, and deepfake exploitation as emerging threats.
Hendricks called for stronger legal frameworks, noting, “We need laws that recognize how violence against women and girls manifests across all areas of their lives, both online and offline, and that hold perpetrators accountable before it turns deadly.”
