FEMICIDE: Crimes of Passion, Honor, and War (Part 1)

 

Why is there a need to specifically examine the killings of females by males, referred to as “femicide”? What are the different types of femicide and what are the challenges in preventing femicide?

In part 1, we discuss the understanding of femicide, its various types, and how it has been used as a combat strategy in conflict situations.

 

Why a Specific Term for the Killings of Women?

The first documented usage of the term ‘Femicide’ was in 1801, in a book by Irish writer John Corry, to refer to a killing of a woman. In the 1970s, a few feminist scholars have been using the term femicide to broadly describe all types of gender-related killings of women and girls. Feminist scholar and activist, Diana Russell is known to have used the term in 1976 when testifying at the first International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in Brussels. The term was then adapted from Russell’s definition of femicide in Femicide in Global Perspective (2001) as “the killing of females by males because they are female.” Femicide has since been used to describe the most extreme form of violence against women, highlighting the distinct patterns of the killings of men and women.

Why is it necessary to specifically examine the killings of females by males when they fall under the broader category of gender-based violence? Patriarchal-rooted violence against women manifests through these gender-specific killings, known as femicide. By recognizing femicide, we can better understand its root causes, the structures that perpetuate it, the culture that supports it, and the societal norms that condone it. This understanding will influence how communities and states perceive, intervene in, and prevent these crimes.

Accurate data is crucial for policymakers to create effective policies to prevent femicide and protect women. Systematic interventions to prevent and address femicide require a clear understanding of what constitute as femicide, the severity of the problem, the trends, pattern, and root causes. This calls for systematic data collection, which requires gender disaggregated data of homicide and specific crimes of femicide. While efforts to systematically collect data on gender-based violence began about three decades ago following the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995, focused efforts on femicide have only started in recent years. 

 

By recognizing femicide, we can better understand its root causes, the structures that perpetuate it.

 

Following the UN adoption of resolution 68/191 in 2013, which called for nations to take action against gender-related killings of women and girls, several countries have introduced femicide laws. These countries include Costa Rica, Mexico, and Argentina (among 18 Latin American countries) as well as Cyprus, Malta, and Croatia, to name a few (Pandey, 2024).

In 2022, UNODC and UN Women launched the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Gender-related Killing of Women and Girls. The goal is to standardize the collection and reporting of data on femicide globally, ensuring consistency and comparability across different regions and countries. This is seen as a way to inform policy decisions, raise awareness, and support efforts to combat gender-based violence at the national, regional, and global levels.

 

Femicide Across the Globe

Examples of the types of femicide include intimate partner murders, sexual violence murders, honor killings, dowry-related killings, and femicide as a weapon of war (part of genocide practices). Femicide can be carried out by non-state actors or by the state. The latter, referred to as state-sanctioned femicide, occurs when the state is the perpetrator, such as in genocide practices, or when states fail to protect, prevent, and punish acts of femicide. In some cases, both types of actors can be involved simultaneously.

Globally, approximately 51,100 women and girls were killed by their intimate partners or other family members in 2023, according to a UNODC (2023) report. This means that in 2023, 60 percent of almost 85,000 women and girls killed intentionally were murdered by their intimate partners or other family members. The data revealed that over 18,000 women were killed by current or former intimate partners or family members in Asia alone. Murder by intimate partners represented the highest percentage of femicide in Europe and the Americas (64 percent and 58 percent, respectively). However, in the rest of the world (based on available data), women and girls were more likely to be killed by family members than by their intimate partners (59 percent and 41 percent, respectively).

 

Femicide as a Strategy in Conflict and War

Beyond the private sphere, femicide is used as a strategy in conflict situations. Throughout history, femicide as a weapon of war had occurred within the context of genocide. In the Rape of Nanking in 1937, which many historians consider to be an act of genocide, pregnant Chinese women were targeted for murder by the Imperial Japanese Army and many of their rape victims were killed. Other examples of this type of femicide include the Rwandan (1994), Bosnian (1992-1995), and Guatemalan (1980s) genocides, where women were subjected to sexual violence and murder as part of broader genocide campaigns.

There are currently reports of targeted killings of Palestinian women and children in Gaza by Israeli military. Women and children killed in the past year has been the highest in numbers compared to any other recent conflict (Oxfam International, 2024), with 70 percent of the war dead being women and children as reported by the UN Human Rights Office (Moench, 2024). UN experts have received reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing (UN Human Rights Office, 2024).

 

Sexual violence and the killing of women as a strategy in conflict situations and as a weapon of war within genocide practices reflect how women are viewed in the private sphere.

 

Over the years, the UN Security Council has passed several resolutions addressing sexual violence in conflict. However, the lack of political will and commitment from governments to implement these resolutions has rendered them ineffective.

The killings targeted at women and sexual violence resulting in the deaths of women during conflict situations or war are an example of state-sanctioned femicide, where the state condones, is complicit in, or fails to prevent or punish such acts.

Sexual violence and the killing of women as a strategy in conflict situations and as a weapon of war within genocide practices reflect how women are viewed in the private sphere—as property, sexual objects, and vehicles for reproduction. This view is manifested in acts of femicide by intimate partners and family members, which is discussed in part 2. The challenges in eliminating violence against women and femicide are also briefly explored, drawing on issues facing countries such as Indonesia, Canada, Pakistan, India, and Iceland.

 

Image: Death Seizing a Woman by Kathe Kollwitz, 1934 (Wikiart.org) 

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