According to a recent estimate by the United Nations, in the year 2021, more than one in five women were murdered by a member of their own family or another close relative every hour.
According to the study conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations Women’s Organization, 45,000 of the 81,000 femicides recorded worldwide in 2015 were at the hands of an intimate partner or family member. According to the findings, many women do not feel safe in their own homes. The private sphere was also the scene of 11% of all male killings.
Women and girls are not just numbers when it comes to femicide. “These fatalities are avoidable; we have the resources and the expertise to stop them,” Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women, said in a statement released on Wednesday.
Women’s rights groups analyze statistics and advocate for policy reform and accountability. Now we need collective action throughout society to protect women and girls at home, on the streets, and everywhere, Bahous said.
The widespread occurrence of gender-based murders is a severe global issue. The survey noted that Asia had the most gender-related private homicides, while women and girls in Africa were more likely to be slain by family or intimate relationships.
In 2021, the rate of gender-related homicides in private spaces was 2.5 per 100,000 females in Africa, 1.4 in the Americas, 1.2 in Oceania, 0.8 in Asia, and 0.6 in Europe. The commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 coincided with a rise in gender-related homicides in Northern America and, to a lesser degree, Western and Southern Europe.
UN agencies urged nations to increase their data collection on femicides and address the core causes of these deaths, particularly by transforming damaging masculinities and societal norms to reduce structural gender imbalances. Bahous: “Women’s rights groups are already tracking statistics and lobbying for policy change and accountability.”
The recent report comes before International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25. However, to avoid such repeated data there is a need for serious action by the UN agencies and the country. These are the few recommendations that at least let the leaders and UN agencies know where are the problem more serious and what is the country needs immediate action to counter violence against women.
Challenges:
- Reason No. 1: there is a need for better coordination and collaboration with The United Nations, its agencies, and the government.
- Lack of a unified approach to data collection and analysis, as well as inconsistency in the data given by countries.?
- Third, there is no regular reporting system in place to publish quarterly or monthly reports and timely action is to be taken.
- Fourth, it has become routine to produce an annual report using two years old data and then wait another year for another report with no real action of follow-up results based on the previous year’s report.
- I didn’t see any result in the report on the action taken based on the 2020 report. No, the time has come when there is a need for unprecedented action for unprecedented issues.
- There is a lack of infrastructure and resources to track crimes against women in many nations and territories.
Key recommendations:
- To accomplish their missions, UN agencies must improve their communication, cooperation, and collaboration within UN agencies and with the Government.
- To maintain regular and reliable reporting, a standardized system is required.
- Like the Security Council, the United Nations needs a council dedicated to addressing violence against women.
- Similar to what exists for hunger and COVID-19, there needs to be a real-time global dashboard with data segmented by nation.
- Each nation requires a joint monitoring team led by the United Nations to ensure progress is being made.
- The United Nations has to ensure that its employees are held accountable for providing monthly progress on the action recommended by the UN-led joint monitoring team.
Thank you for reading!
Sikander Khan
