U.N. says femicide now a global security crisis as governments worldwide fail to protect women from killings

U.S.A: Every 10 minutes last year, somewhere in the world, a woman or girl lost her life at the hands of someone she trusted — a partner, a parent, a sibling. A new United Nations (UN) report released Monday brings painful clarity to a crisis that too often unfolds behind closed doors.

The joint study from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women estimates that 50,000 women and girls were killed in 2024 by people within their own families. These aren’t strangers in dark alleys — they are husbands, boyfriends, fathers, uncles, even mothers and brothers. The place that should offer safety instead remains one of the most dangerous.

The report shows that six out of every 10 women murdered last year were killed by someone close to them, a stark contrast to male victims, only 11% of whom were killed by family or partners. When the numbers are laid out — 137 women every single day, one every 10 minutes — the scale becomes heartbreakingly clear. And yet, researchers warn this slight dip from 2023’s figure doesn’t signal real progress; instead, it reflects gaps in reporting across countries.

“Femicide continues to claim tens of thousands of lives each year, with no sign of improvement,” the study cautions. The message is blunt: The world is failing its women and girls.

No corner of the globe was spared. Africa documented the maximum number of incidents, with an appraised 22,000 femicides — a figure that signifies not data, but mothers, offspring, sisters, and friends whose lives were terminated.

Sarah Hendricks, who leads UN Women’s Policy Division, stressed that these killings rarely erupt out of nowhere. “Femicides don’t happen in isolation,” she said. “They often sit on a continuum of violence that can start with controlling behaviour, threats, and harassment — including online.”

And that online space, the report notes, has become an increasingly harmful arena. Technology has given rise to new forms of abuse — from non-consensual image-sharing to doxxing to deepfake videos — all of which can escalate real-world danger.

Hendricks urged governments to act with urgency. Laws must reflect the ways violence follows women across both physical and digital spaces, she said, and perpetrators must be held accountable long before the violence turns fatal.

Despite decades of activism, the UN’s findings are a deeply personal reminder: for far too many women and girls, home is still not a safe place — and the world has a long way to go to change that.