Gender-related killings of women and girls (femicide/feminicide): Global estimates of female intimate partner/family-related homicides in 2022

Violence against women and girls is the most pervasive human rights violation. The gender-related killings of women and girls represent the lethal end point of a continuum of gender-based violence, and they usually follow prior experiences of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse.

With the aim of galvanizing global action against this crime, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women are publishing this second joint publication with global estimates of gender-related killings of women and girls by an intimate partner or family member, with data from 2022.

This year recorded the highest yearly number of intentional killings of women and girls in the past two decades, and women and girls in all regions across the world are affected by this type of gender-based violence. Global data availability on gender-related killings is gradually increasing. However, significant data gaps remain to better understand gender-related killings of women and girls in the public sphere and against women at high risk, such as women politicians, women human rights defenders, and journalists. By ensuring that every victim is counted, we can ensure that perpetrators are held to account and justice is served. By improving understanding of all types of gender-related killings of women and girls, we can strengthen prevention and improve responses.

This publication features policy recommendations to prevent gender-related killings, including through risk assessments and protective measures, the establishment of femicide observatories, the criminalization of femicide as specific offenses, or in-depth multisectoral reviews of deaths.