Last year, across the world, a woman was killed every ten minutes by an intimate partner or family member. In the UK, one woman is killed every three days. Femicide is the gender-related intentional killing of women. It is the most brutal, extreme and horrifying manifestation of gender-based violence. Globally, an estimated 1 in 3 women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in their life. When accounting for sexual harassment, the figure is even higher. Violence against women and girls is a human rights emergency of epidemic proportions.
Uniting Against Violence
Every year, the United Nations, in conjunction with the UNiTE campaign, holds the ‘16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence,’ an annual campaign that calls for the elimination of violence against women and girls. In 1999, the United Nations declared the 25th of November an International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. From this day until Human Rights Day on the 10th of December, people from all across the world come together to spread awareness and campaign to eliminate gender-based violence, one of the most pervasive global human rights violations. This year’s 16 Days of Activism focuses on femicide with the title ‘Every 10 Minutes … A woman is killed. #NoExcuse: UNiTE to End Violence Against Women.’
The tale of why the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is held on the 25th of November is an important story in itself. On this day in 1960, the Mirabal sisters, Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa, were murdered on the orders of the Dominican Republic’s dictator, Rafael Trujillo, for their political activism. Trujillo had held power in the Dominican Republic since a rigged election in 1931 and ruled with tyranny, brutal violence, mass murder and the secret exploitation of young girls. The Mirabal sisters, or ‘Mariposas’ as they were known, were part of an underground resistance movement that challenged Trujillo’s regime and their identities as female activists put them at a greater risk of violence. Their brutal murders sparked public outrage and helped to bring down the regime six months later.
Femicide is on the rise and in 2022, nearly 89,000 women were killed intentionally making it the highest number of recorded femicide cases in twenty years. Additionally, 55 per cent of all female murders are committed by intimate partners or family members compared to 12 per cent of male murders, meaning women are at a greater risk of being killed at home.
Highly publicised incidents of femicide have gripped the headlines this year. In August, a female trainee doctor was raped and killed in a hospital in India causing thousands of people to take to the streets to demand justice and the implementation of new safeguards and laws to protect women from violence and harassment. In September, Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei was set on fire by her ex-partner where she lived in Kenya making her the fourth female pro-athlete from Kenya to be murdered by an intimate partner since 2020. And, only last month, İkbal Uzuner and Ayşegül Halil were killed on the streets of Istanbul igniting growing public anger and sparking widespread protests due to the ruling party’s lack of action after a spate of femicides, especially as the government had pulled out of the Istanbul Convention (a European treaty on preventing violence against women) in 2021. At the time of writing this, Turkey experienced 406 femicides since the start of 2024 (according to The Monument Counter).
These are just a few of the most highly publicised incidents of femicide from the last few months. But the reality is that many femicide cases remain untold, undocumented and without justice. This is why telling victims’ stories and delivering justice for them is so important. Projects such as the Guardian’s Killed Women Count are trying to do just that by recording the number of women in the UK whose deaths have led to a man being charged and telling their stories.
Whilst this year’s focus is on femicide, the 16 Days aims to prevent and eliminate every form of violence against women and girls. Femicide is often the culmination of increasing escalations of violence against women, so every sign of violence must be addressed. As pushback against women’s rights intensifies across the world, this is more important now than ever.
Lesser-Known Causes of Gender-Based Violence
The statistics speak for themselves. Worldwide, 27 per cent of women aged 15-49 report having been subjected to some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner. It is also important to look at the issue through an intersectional lens. In the UK, disabled women are twice as likely to face domestic abuse as non-disabled women. And, whilst black women are 3 per cent more likely to report domestic abuse than white women, they are 14 per cent less likely to be referred to specialist support by the police. Acts of gender-based violence often go unreported, with the UN estimating that less than 40 per cent of women who experience violence seek help of any sort.
Current threats and developments such as technology, the pandemic, war and climate change have only exacerbated the issue. Between 16 per cent to 58 per cent of women have experienced technology-facilitated gender-based violence. This was made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. A survey by the charity Glitch found that 38 per cent of respondents experienced online abuse with 27 per cent reporting a rise in abuse since the pandemic.
Gender-based violence especially affects women in conflict, with 70 per cent of those experiencing war and humanitarian crises having encountered it. UN Environment estimates that 80 per cent of those displaced by climate change are women and when they are displaced, they are at a greater risk of violence.
The fallout from natural disasters also increases violence against women. After the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, there was an increase in trafficking from an estimated 3,000-5,000 annually in 1990 to 12,000-20,000 in 2015. And, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, rape among displaced women in trailer parks rose 6 times the baseline rate for Mississippi, USA that year.
As conflicts spread across the globe, it is important to remember that in conflict situations, women are at a higher risk of gender-based violence and it can be used as a tactic of war. The breakdown of crucial infrastructure including healthcare, education and the rule of law can disproportionately affect women who have been victims of gender-based violence. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, both conflict-related sexual violence and domestic violence skyrocketed. Human Rights First reveals that conflict-related sexual violence is among the types of conflict-related crime least likely to be reported due to the stigma attached to it. Additionally, according to the Ukrainian National Police, reported cases of domestic violence rose by 51 per cent during the first five months of 2023 compared to the same period the year before.
Searching for Justice
Women directly impacted by disasters, climate change and conflict are not the only ones affected by the issue. Human rights defenders, including environmental human rights defenders, are at an additional risk of gender-based violence. Like the Mirabal sisters, women activists, journalists and parliamentarians are at a higher risk of gender-based violence. Seventy-three per cent of women journalists have experienced online violence, and 20 per cent report being attacked or abused offline concerning the threats made.
Some progress has been made. Currently, 104 countries have comprehensive laws that address domestic violence. This has been helpful. Countries with such laws report lower rates of intimate partner violence at 9.5 per cent compared to 16.1 per cent in those without legislation. However, global backlash and pushback against women’s rights combined with discriminatory social norms can lead to weak enforcement of these laws and a lack of prosecution.
Behind every one of these statistics and stories is a woman or girl. Gender-based violence is a breach of a person’s fundamental human right to health, freedom from torture, and a right to life. This is why the UN’s 16 Days of Activism matters, and why 365 days of activism are just as, if not more, important.
We cannot allow these acts of violence to become normalised. We must address their root causes and call on governments to pass and enforce laws. There must also be adequate funding for women’s rights organisations to enable them to protect vulnerable women and girls.
For 16 days, concentrated, loud awareness of the serious issue of gender-based violence takes centre stage. But we must continue to act beyond that. Why? Because every ten minutes … some woman, somewhere is killed: #NoExcuse.
DISCLAIMER: The articles on our website are not endorsed by, or the opinions of Shout Out UK (SOUK), but exclusively the views of the author.
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