One Woman Killed Every 10 Minutes In 2024 – UN

The United Nations has raised alarm over the rising wave of gender-related killings, revealing that almost every 10 minutes in 2024, a woman or girl was murdered by an intimate partner or a family member.

The grim statistics, released on Monday by UN Women to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, show that of the 83,000 women and girls intentionally killed worldwide last year, about 50,000 were murdered within their own households.

This means an average of 137 women and girls were killed every day by those closest to them. In comparison, intimate partners or family members accounted for only 11 per cent of male homicide cases.

“Femicides don’t happen in isolation. They often sit on a continuum of violence that can begin with controlling behaviour, threats, and harassment, including online,” said Sarah Hendriks, Director of UN Women’s Policy Division.

She stressed that digital abuse frequently escalates into physical harm, and called for stronger early-warning systems and tougher laws to protect women and girls.

“Every woman and girl has the right to be safe in every part of her life. To prevent these killings, we need laws that recognise how violence manifests both online and offline and hold perpetrators to account before it turns deadly,” Hendriks added.

John Brandolino, Acting Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), noted that the home remains “a dangerous and sometimes lethal place” for women worldwide.

The UN report also highlighted regional disparities, showing Africa as recording the highest rate of femicides committed by partners or family members—3 per 100,000 women—followed by the Americas (1.5), Oceania (1.4), Asia (0.7), and Europe (0.5).

Although the figure of 50,000 domestic femicides in 2024 is slightly lower than the 51,100 recorded in 2023, UN officials warned that the apparent drop likely results from improved data access rather than a real decline in violence.

The findings were released alongside the launch of the 2025 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign, which this year focuses on combating digital abuse, including cyberstalking, online harassment, deepfakes, gendered disinformation, and the non-consensual release of intimate images.

The campaign urges governments, technology companies and civil society to strengthen laws, enforce accountability measures, invest in prevention strategies and fund survivor-support systems. It also calls for sustained support for women’s rights organisations working to make both digital and physical spaces safer.

UN Women and UNODC said improved data collection, guided by a 2022 global statistical framework, is crucial to shaping policy responses and ensuring justice for victims.