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A shocking report from the United Nations reveals a startling statistic facing women around the world: a woman is intentionally killed every ten minutes by her partner or a family member in the year 2024, indicating a rise in female homicides globally.

The report, issued by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women, published on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, states that this type of killing, driven by gender-related motives, represents the harshest forms of violence against women and girls.

The report reveals that these crimes are on the rise, and female homicides are typically linked to discrimination, inequality, stereotypes, and harmful social practices. They can occur in homes, workplaces, educational institutions, public spaces, and even online, and are often associated with partner violence, harassment, sexual assault, harmful traditional practices, or human trafficking.

According to the report, approximately 50,000 women and girls were killed in 2024 by their partners or family members, averaging 137 victims daily, with current or former partners accounting for 60 percent of the perpetrators in family-related crimes.

The report also clarifies that female homicides occur outside the family context and may be linked to rape or sexual violence by strangers, or to harmful practices such as female genital mutilation or so-called honor crimes, in addition to hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as being connected to armed conflicts, gangs, human trafficking, and organized crime.

A Global Crisis Led by Africa

Female homicides are a global crisis affecting all regions, with Africa recording the highest number of victims at 22,600, or 3 per 100,000. The Americas and Oceania reported high rates of 1.5 and 1.4 per 100,000, while Asia and Europe recorded lower rates of 0.7 and 0.5 per 100,000. UN Women indicates that these figures are "alarmingly high," but suggests that the actual number is much greater due to underreporting.
A number of groups face increasing risks, particularly women in public life such as politicians, journalists, and human rights and environmental defenders, who are subjected to rising violence both online and offline.

Death Threats to Female Journalists and Parliamentarians

The report notes that one in four female journalists worldwide and one-third of parliamentarians in the Asia-Pacific region have received death threats online. Additionally, 81 cases of murdered environmental defenders and 34 cases of murdered human rights defenders were recorded in 2022, with Indigenous women facing even greater risks.
The United Nations attributes the rising rates of female homicides to the ongoing gender inequality, discriminatory social norms, and escalating violence in conflict and displacement areas, along with weak accountability and protection systems, the prevalence of online harassment, economic crises, and the shrinking space for civil society.

The organization is working to address the phenomenon by supporting legal frameworks, developing services aimed at survivors, improving data collection, training law enforcement agencies, and supporting campaigns that challenge harmful norms. Its efforts are grounded in the fifth goal of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women adopted in 1979.