SANTIAGO, Chile – The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says that, in 2022, at least 4,050 women were victims of femicide (also known as feminicide) in 26 countries and territories in the region.
Femicide is the killing of a woman or girl, in particular by a man, and on account of her gender.
ECLAC said in a new report that the information is based on the latest data that official agencies reported to its the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean (GEO).
“This is equivalent to one gender-related killing of a woman every two hours in the region,” said ECLAC, stating that “it is not possible to identify an upward or downward trend in the rates of femicide or feminicide in each country, since the variations are small and do not reflect an increase or decrease in the problem.”
However, the United Nations regional organization stressed that “it can be affirmed that femicide persists in the region, despite greater public awareness, legislative advances, progress in the measurement of cases and the state response.”
ECLAC said that, of the 19 countries and territories in the region that reported the number of femicides or gender-related killings of women in 2022, the highest rates were seen in Honduras (6.0 per 100,000 women), the Dominican Republic (2.9) and El Salvador and Uruguay (1.6).
The lowest rates, meaning less than 1 victim per 100,000 women, were observed in Puerto Rico and Peru (0.9), Colombia (0.8), Costa Rica (0.7), Nicaragua (0.5), Chile (0.4) and Cuba (0.3), ECLAC said.
In the Caribbean, it said 46 women were victims of lethal gender violence in the seven countries and territories that provided information corresponding to 2022.
The highest number of cases by far was in Trinidad and Tobago (43), ECLAC said.
“We will not get tired of saying this: Latin America and the Caribbean has a duty to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls,” said ECLAC’s Executive Secretary José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs just before the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which is commemorated each year on November 25 and launches 16 days of activism through to December 10, which is International Human Rights Day.
“It is unacceptable that more than 4,000 women and girls are murdered each year in our countries on the basis of gender,” Salazar-Xirinachs added.
In the context of his official visit to Chile, ECLAC said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres participated in one of the commemoration and awareness-raising activities that ECLAC and the UN System in the country carry out each year in the framework of the UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women campaign.
Launched in 2008, ECLAC aid this initiative calls on governments, civil society, women’s organizations, young people, the private sector, media and the UN system to join forces to prevent and eliminate “this true global pandemic.”
ECLAC said the theme this year is “UNITE! Invest to prevent violence against women and girls.”
“Femicide is simply the most extreme expression of inequality, discrimination and the multiple forms of violence against women and girls,” said ECLAC, stating that, according to specialized national surveys from 10 countries in the region, between 42 percent and 79 percent of women (around 2 out of every 3) have been victims of gender violence in different areas of their lives.
In addition, ECLAC said that, on average, 1 in 3 women has been or currently is a victim of physical and/or sexual violence perpetrated by someone who was, or is, their partner, which entails the risk of lethal violence, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
ECLAC said this corresponds to 88 million women over 15 years of age in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“At the same time, early and forced child marriages and unions are a harmful practice and a manifestation of gender violence that persists and is widespread in the region, affecting 1 in 5 girls,” ECLAC said.
“Femicidal violence can be prevented with comprehensive and forceful state responses,” Salazar-Xirinachs underscored. “Profound transformations are urgently needed to ensure that the women and girls of our region can live violence-free lives.”
ECLAC said more than 70 percent of the femicide victims in 2022 were between 15 and 44 years of age, according to the information provided by eight Latin American countries.
However, 4 percent of them were under 15, and 8 percent were aged 60 or older, ECLAC said.
In seven countries that reported to ECLAC, it said at least 400 children, adolescents and other dependents lost their mother or caregiver due to femicide in 2022.
To prevent femicidal violence, ECLAC said it is also necessary to “strengthen data on the existence of prior complaints of violence or precautionary measures (such as restraining orders) that would allow for assessing risks and taking timely action, and thereby averting gender-related killings.”
“States in the region must increase budget allocations and invest to bolster policies against gender violence with new strategies for responding to the various manifestations of violence such as, for example, gender violence in digital media,” ECLAC urged.
In the Buenos Aires Commitment – which was approved in 2022 and proposes a path for moving towards a care society – ECLAC noted that regional countries agreed to “promote the adoption and implementation of laws, policies, comprehensive and multisectoral action plans and educational awareness-raising programs to prevent, address, punish and eliminate all forms of gender-based violence and discrimination against women, adolescent girls and girls in all their diversity, in different areas and manifestations, including harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, child marriage and early unions.”
ECLAC said that moving towards a care society requires “transforming patriarchal, discriminatory and violent cultural patterns,” urging regional governments to “redouble their efforts aimed at improving record-keeping and information systems; to increase budget resources for public policies that respond comprehensively to victims and survivors; and to invest in effective prevention, strengthening risk assessment and effective protection and reparation measures for victims, and their access to medical, psychosocial, legal assistance and other services, as well as to educational, economic and employment opportunities.”
But ECLAC said current information on femicide victims “does not enable the construction of a comparable time series for regional countries.
It said several countries have improved their femicide records though legal reforms, “which has entailed methodological adjustments that prevent a strict comparison.”
