UN data show 85,000 women and girls were murdered in 2023—140 each day—mostly by loved ones. Yet policy action and public outrage remain painfully scant.
About once every ten minutes, a woman is killed by someone she may have known, trusted, or even considered family. An average of six women per hour, 144 a day, and more than 50,000 women a year lose their lives because of their gender. These aren’t traits from stories about imagined dystopian worlds; this is the daily reality of femicide—and the world barely flinches.
Femicide isn’t an invisible threat—it’s sometimes a monster sitting at the dinner table, often wearing a wedding ring. And yet, most of the world continues to look away.
Let that sink in: the place where you sleep might be someone else’s crime scene right now.
If you still think femicide is just a distant statistic, confront the brutal reality that played out live on TikTok. Valeria Márquez’s final moments were tragically viewable to her followers.
She was live-streaming from her beauty salon in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico, on May 13, 2025, when she was attacked by two men on motorcycles. After confirming her identity, one of them shot her and both fled the scene.
The assailant had entered claiming he had a package to deliver. Turns out, patriarchy comes with express shipping. This audacious act, captured in real-time, is being investigated as a femicide—a gender-based killing of a woman.
Activists are requesting major improvements, such as collecting better statistics on gender-based violence, enforcing existing laws, and addressing the root causes of such violence in society.
There is no doubt that the numbers are very serious. In 2023, 51,100 females fell victim to intimate-partner femicide, compared to 48,800 in 2022. As a result, every ten minutes, someone close to a woman takes her life. The UN report shows that “women and girls are most at risk of danger at home.”
It’s not just a “third world” problem
UN data from the past year found 21,700 femicides in Africa—2.9 for every 100,000 women. In Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexico is a clear example, with at least 3,000 women killed in 2023 (ten women per day), according to UN Women.
While rates in the Americas and Oceania are approximately 1.5–1.6 per 100,000, those in Asia and Europe are under 1—0.8 and 0.6, respectively. Still, women’s groups say the high averages mask areas where women suffer from serious crimes, including parts of South Africa and Scandinavia.
Many cases are not counted. Countries do not always record these killings as a unique crime type, which means numerous deaths are left out of official numbers. As one UN report notes, “those figures are likely undercounts because many countries around the world don’t collect data on femicide.”
Without better data, violence that is horrific in scope can seem invisible. You can’t solve a problem you refuse to name. Invisibility, it seems, is a killer’s best friend.
The road to change isn’t paved yet
In Mexico in 2023, less than a quarter of all female homicides were acknowledged as femicides. Because they are underclassified, law enforcement cannot offer targeted support, and impunity continues. Some regions have created gender-oriented prosecutor offices and implemented gender violence alerts. Nevertheless, these solutions are not always well-planned or well-funded, which prevents them from being truly effective.
In 2024, the government of Mexico issued a public apology for failing to prevent and respond to femicides in Ciudad Juárez from 1995 to 2003, taking responsibility for the disappearances and murders that occurred. Even so, the process of bringing about real change continues to be full of obstacles.
In Algeria, while new laws were created to help women, activists claim the government is not doing enough, and perpetrators still avoid charges due to legal loopholes.
Despite many years of awareness-raising, few practical measures exist to protect women at risk. These might include witness protection systems, stricter bail conditions for suspects, or fast-tracking femicide cases in courts. As one activist in South Africa notes, abusers are routinely granted bail due to overcrowded prisons—and the woman is often killed afterward.
Activists are requesting major improvements, such as collecting better statistics on gender-based violence, enforcing existing laws, and addressing the root causes of such violence in society.
Many countries still label the murder of a woman by her husband as a matter of “domestic dispute,” not gender violence. Even leading public health and human rights organizations have only recently started to explicitly name it. The WHO bluntly refers to violence against women as “a major public health problem.”
Although gender-based violence is mentioned in Ukrainian health policies, femicide is not specifically addressed. And while UN reports and women’s groups are sounding the alarm, there is still a lack of widespread political will to fight it.
Outcry and apathy
Despite the alarming findings, public action has been slow. Both governments and media continue to treat femicide as a marginal issue. Official figures have declined despite the persistent presence of violence. UN analysts stress that better evidence is necessary for meaningful change.
Activists argue that if 140 teachers or aid workers were killed every day in conflict zones, it would be treated as a crisis. However, since it is women who are most often killed by men at home, the global issue barely registers as a whisper.
In Latin America, Africa, and other regions, women’s groups have launched campaigns such as #NiUnaMenos and #CallItFemicide to demand action. Still, these efforts are often addressed in vague policy language—as if the problem were theoretical rather than urgent.
Despite many years of awareness-raising, few practical measures exist to protect women at risk. These might include witness protection systems, stricter bail conditions for suspects, or fast-tracking femicide cases in courts. As one activist in South Africa notes, abusers are routinely granted bail due to overcrowded prisons—and the woman is often killed afterward.
A UN expert insists, “This is a war,” and yet it’s a war waged mostly in silence. After all, the clock is ticking: with 2030 on the horizon, failure to address femicide is not only a crisis—it’s a crime and a global disgrace.
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