ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United Nations on Tuesday warned that home remains "the most dangerous" place for women and girls in terms of the risk of homicide, saying that household or family members are most likely to commit such crimes.
"The home continues to be the most dangerous place for women and girls in terms of the risk of homicide," according to a new report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Tuesday.
“The largest share of intentional killings of women and girls worldwide are perpetrated by intimate partners or other family members,” the report stated.
According to the report, 83,000 women and girls were “intentionally” killed in 2024, of whom nearly 50,000 were killed by intimate partners or other family members in 2024 worldwide.
This is lower than the 2023 estimate of 51,000, the report revealed, noting that "this change is not indicative of an actual decrease as it is largely due to differences in data availability at the country level."
Sarah Hendriks, Director of Programme in Policy and Intergovernmental Division at the UN Women said during a press briefing on Tuesday that “one woman or girl is killed every ten minutes by an intimate partner or by her family member.”
Candice Welsch, Director of the Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs noted that "60 percent of these women that are intentionally killed are killed by either their intimate partners or other family members,"
An estimated 137 women and girls are killed every day by a member of their own family, according to the report, with Africa recording the highest rates of victims relative to its female population - three per 100,000.
The report also warns that technology-facilitated abuse - including cyberstalking, coercive control, and the non-consensual sharing of images - can heighten the risk of offline violence and, in some cases, escalate into femicide.