What are the origins of this fun-filled festive custom?
In reality, too many victims of femicide still go uncounted. For roughly four in 10 intentional murders of women and girls, there isn't enough information to identify them as gender-related killings.
By identifying women and girls at greater risk, countries can better inform prevention and protection mechanisms.
However, femicide can be related to sexual violence by someone unknown to the victim, linked to harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, or connected with armed conflict, human trafficking, and other forms of organized crime.
Women in the public eye, including politicians, human rights defenders, and journalists are often targets of intentional acts of violence, both online and offline, with some resulting in death.
According to UNODC, an estimated 2,300 women are killed every year in Europe at the hands of their partners or ex-partners. Unfortunately, many member states of the European Union don't have official records of femicide, which limits the full picture of the situation.
Despite data limitations, the available evidence from Canada and Australia suggests that Indigenous women are disproportionately affected by gender-related killings.
In many cases, only gender-related killings perpetrated by an intimate partner or family member are counted as femicide.
To prevent femicide, it's crucial that national authorities record comprehensive data on victims.
Early intervention and risk assessment, access to survivor-centered support, protection, and justice services are key to ending gender-related killings of women and girls.
Women's rights organizations play a crucial role in preventing femicide, driving policy change, holding governments to account, and providing critical survivor-centered services for victims of gender-based violence. Therefore, strengthening financial support for these organizations is key.
Sources: (UN Women) (UNODC) (The Guardian) (El País) (CNN)
Gender-related killings and other forms of violence against women and girls aren't inevitable. They can be prevented through primary prevention initiatives focused on transforming harmful social norms and engaging communities to create zero tolerance for violence against women.
At 4.3 per 100,000 women and girls, the rate of female homicide in Canada was five times higher among indigenous than among non-indigenous women and girls.
Ensuring the availability of comprehensive data is critical to strengthening femicide prevention, protection and response measures.
According to the Spanish newspaper El País, in Latin America and the Caribbean, 12 women and girls are killed every day. However, 98% of cases go unprosecuted.
This means that, on average, more than 133 women or girls are killed every day by someone in their own family.
Current and ex-partners are by far the most likely perpetrators of femicide, accounting for an average of 55% of all intimate partner and family-related murders.
In fact, the most dangerous place for a woman is her home. It's estimated that around the world, a woman or girl is killed every 11 minutes in their own home.
In some countries, murder is the second leading cause of death for women at work, meaning it's greater than deaths related to workplace accidents.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), female sex workers are 18 times more likely to be killed than women in other professions.
There are an estimated 5,000 murders of women in the name of "honor" each year worldwide. However, this is believed to be an underestimate.
An honor killing is the murder of a relative, especially a girl or a woman, who is perceived to have brought dishonor to the family.
Although there's a higher incidence of violence against women with disabilities, femicides of women with disabilities remain an "invisible" problem, as data isn't consistently collected.
This is because criminal justice recording and investigation practices are different around the world, and sometimes vary within the same country.
While the numbers we see in reports and statistics are alarmingly high, they're only the tip of the iceberg.
Across the world, femicide of transgender women often faces a high level of impunity. These crimes frequently don't get investigated.
Like all forms of gender-based violence against women and girls, femicide is a problem that affects every country across the globe.
Figures from UNODC show that while Asia is the region with the largest absolute number of killings, Africa is the region with the highest level of violence relative to the size of its female population.
In the US, 30% of the murders of Black women are committed by intimate partners or family members. Also, nine out of 10 murdered Black women knew their killers.
Click on to learn more about the sad reality of femicide around the world.
The sad reality of femicide around the world
Femicide is the most brutal and extreme manifestation of violence against women and girls
LIFESTYLE Crime
Defined as an intentional killing with a gender-related motivation, femicide may be driven by stereotyped gender roles, discrimination towards women and girls, unequal power relations between genders, or harmful social norms. And despite decades of activism from women's rights organizations, and growing awareness from governments worldwide, evidence shows that progress in stopping such violence isn't happening quickly enough.
Click on to learn more about the sad reality of femicide around the world.