Femicides in 2023: Global estimates of intimate partner/family member femicides

Femicide represents the most extreme manifestation of gender-based violence against women and girls. Very often such killings are not isolated incidents but rather the culmination of pre-existing forms of gender-based violence that affect all regions and countries worldwide. Broadly speaking, femicides or gender-related killings of women and girls are committed in different settings, within the private sphere and beyond, for gender-related motives. Such motives are rooted in societal norms and stereotypes that consider women as subordinate to men, as well as in discrimination towards women and girls, inequality and unequal power relations between women and men in society. Gender-related motives characterize the context in which these crimes are committed, which also distinguishes them from other intentional killings of women and girls unrelated to gender motives.

The “Statistical framework for measuring the gender-related killings of women and girls (also referred to as “femicide/feminicide”)”, jointly developed by the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women and approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission in March 2022, identifies three types of femicide:

1. Intentional homicides of women and girls perpetrated by intimate partners.
2. Intentional homicides of women and girls perpetrated by other family members
3. Intentional homicides of women and girls committed by perpetrators other than intimatepartners or other family members and where the killing meets at least one of eight criteriaidentified in the Statistical framework

This research brief is focused on patterns of and trends in the first two types of femicide as the availability of data on the third type of femicide is still very limited. The focus is therefore on femicides committed within the domestic sphere, which are by far the most prevalent form of gender-related killings of women and girls.

Global and regional estimates of the number of women killed by intimate partners or other family members in 2023 are presented in this research brief, as are, available time trends, other features of gender-related killings, selected practices for preventing femicides and available country data.