Elimination of Violence Against Women 2025 - Press Conference | United Nations

All right. Hello and welcome.

Hi everybody. Thank you for uh coming

today. Um so on this year's

international day for the elimination of

violence against women we are joined

today by Miss Sarah Hris UN women's

director of the program policy and

intergovernmental division and Miss

Kellyopi Majerro chief of the ending

violence against women section here in

the room online we are joined by um

Candace Welsh UN ODC's director of the

division for policy analysis and public

affairs and David Ross of UNODC's data

analytics and divisions. So um if I

understand correctly we will start with

uh Candace Welch.

Um

please you have the floor if you can.

>> Thank you very much. I believe there's a

presentation

and so I'm very pleased to be able to

present a brief overview of the key

findings in the latest report on global

estimates of intimate partner and family

related femicides which is jointly

developed by UNODC and UN women. These

findings shed a light on a critical

issues that affect communities all

around the world. Uh, femicides include

killings in the domestic sphere, that is

either by an intimate partner or other

family members, as well as killings that

take place outside of the domestic

sphere where there's a gender

motivation, such as previous records of

harassment or violence by the

perpetrator. Unfortunately, those latter

um types of femicides, there's very

little data that's available on that.

And so, this study focuses only on

intimate partner and family related

femicides. Next, please.

In 2024, an estimated 50,000 women and

girls were killed by intimate partners

or other family members. This number is

worldwide. This means that 137 women and

girls lost their lives every single day

uh at the hand of someone in their own

family. And sadly, what we see is that

this global figure shows no sign of

decline. Now, killing by intimate

partners or other family members can be

committed by both male and female

perpetrators, including in such cases as

honor killings or dowy related um

murders. Uh while we don't have global

data on that, we do know that with

recent estimates that approximately 90%

of intentional homicides are committed

by men. And this information is uh based

on information we have directly from

member states to UNODC that is

complemented then as well by other

information from governance sources and

from NOS's. Next please.

So if we look worldwide then we can see

that there are gender related killings

in every single region of the world. Uh

Africa continues to be the region with

the highest number of uh victims in

absolute terms where there were 22,600

victims last year in the Americas. So

you can see um that's been followed by

Asia at 17,400 then the Americas at

7,700

2,100 in Europe and just 300 in

Oceanana. But it's important to

understand with these numbers what the

actual rates of intimate partner or

family violence uh femicide are uh per

100,000. And here we see that Africa is

still the highest at three per 100,000

followed by the Americas at 1.5 and then

down from there um across the it's

important to recognize though of course

that these are very big regions and so

there may be you know big differences

within those at the country or

subregional level. Next please.

Um when we try to look at long-term

trends in femicide so far we can only

really look at two regions in the

Americas and Europe where we have

longerterm detailed data uh to be able

to look at the changes over the last 14

years from 2010 to 2024. And in these

regions we can see a difference. Um in

the Americas despite some fluctuations

up and down the rate in 2024 uh is not

that much lower than what it was in

2010. In contrast in Europe we do see a

more market decline from 2010 into 2024.

But it is clear that these kinds of

meaningful changes only occur over

extended time. um reflecting that risk

factors and the causes behind this form

of violence are deeply rooted in social

norms and practices and that changes

unfortunately tend to occur gradually.

Next, please.

Um as we know worldwide, men and boys

account for the vast majority of

homicide victims, 80% uh across the

world. And that's often, you know,

driven when we look at organized crime

or gang related violence or homicides

that result from brawls or other kinds

of physical violence.

Uh, however, when we start to look at

what violence happens in the home or by,

you know, intimate partners, we see that

almost 60% of the women that are killed

are killed by intimate partners or other

family members. Whereas when we look at

that figure for men, it's much much

smaller and only 11% of them are

happening in the home. So it's important

to recognize this that while the vast

majority of male homicides occur outside

this domestic sphere, unfortunately for

women, the home continues to be the most

dangerous place for them in terms of

risks of a homicide. And I would like to

finish here with these rather stark data

um that uh really drives home uh the

importance of the issue and also the

action that we continue to need to

really take. Thank you.

>> Thank you so much, Miss Welsh. And now

moving into the room, Miss Hrix, the

floor is yours.

>> Thank you very much. Uh and indeed this

is actually the 26th year that the

United Nations and member states

commemorate the international day for

the elimination of violence against

women. And across these decades, our

latest data estimates confront us with a

very stark truth. And that is that for

these two plus decades, the needle has

actually barely moved. In fact, intimate

partner violence has declined by just

about 0.2%

on an annual basis.

The femicide estimates that were just

presented by Candice actually deepen

this truth. They show that for far far

too many women and girls, as Candace

said, the most dangerous place is

actually the home. The most dangerous

place is actually in the home.

>> [snorts]

>> One woman or girl is killed every 10

minutes by an intimate partner or by her

family member. A data point that

actually catches in my throat even

though we have seen this same refrain

for many many years now. Femicides do

not emerge suddenly. They do not emerge

out of the blue. They are actually the

fatal final act in a continuum of

violence. A continuum of violence that

is visible, but that is often far too

ignored long before a woman is killed.

We've just emerged from the trusteeship

council chambers where the commemoration

of the international day to end violence

against women was happening and too many

women and girls are simply not here on

this day. And we owe them the honesty of

the numbers that we're speaking about

today.

And so with that, we must confront also

another uncomfortable truth. And that is

that our data only tells us a partial

story.

And that's because too many systems

still fail to actually record

the

depth and the breadth of femicides as

what they are. When killings are logged

without that intimate partner and

perpetrator relationship, the victim

perpetrator relationship, they actually

disappear from count. They don't appear

in the data anymore. And in most

countries, gender related killings that

actually take place outside the home are

not measured at all. And this is not

because they don't happen, but simply

because the systems we have don't see

it, don't count it. The estimates that

we present here today by UNODC and by UN

women exist because we actually insist

that they exist.

But the absences in the data tell us

something actually equally important.

They show that where systems have not

yet caught up with realities that women

and girls are fa are facing that we need

to pay the hardest focus on. And this is

clearest in the digital space where the

links between technology facilitated

violence and lethal violence remain

largely unmeasured.

and consequently they remain largely

unadressed.

Digital violence is not separate from

real violence. It is the very same

violence. It's the very same violence

just accelerated. The very same violence

but amplified.

We see women surveyed online before they

are attacked offline. We also see

coerced images that sparkle lethal harm

and we see the killings of women and

girls actually live streamed on

platforms. These are the very same

platforms that should protect them.

Legislation has not kept pace.

1.78

billion women and girls worldwide are

left with no legal protection from

online harassment or from cyber

stalking.

That's nearly two billion women and

girls who have no legal protection from

online harassment or from stalking that

takes place

digitally. When women are pushed out of

digital spaces, their right to

participate in society, their right to

speak, to be heard, to use their voices,

all of this gets eroded. And with it,

when those voices are eroded, when women

become increasingly invisibleized,

the democratic institutions

that depend on those rights are likewise

eroded.

One in four journalists right now

receives online threats,

including threats to their lives. One in

four journalists around the world, four

female journalists.

A quarter to a third of women

parliamentarians

face abuse severe enough to silence

them, to have them deplatform, to step

back from political life. And amidst

this, artificial intelligence is

actually accelerating this harm. Deep

fakes and targeted harassment is

evolving faster and faster than the

systems can actually keep pace.

So what are the shifts that can change

this trajectory? Across decades of

evidence, we know that the presence of

strong and autonomous and well-funded

women's movements and women's rights

organizations is the single most

critical factor that can drive progress

to actually end violence against women.

We know that countries with domestic

violence legislation actually report

significantly lower rates of intimate

partner violence. 9.5%

compared to 16.1%

of those countries without such laws.

We've seen really promising steps

towards progress this year. Laws that

were strengthened in Belgium and in

Colombia, new prevention initiatives in

Panama, but also in Costa Rica, enhanced

police responsiveness in Spain and in

Pakistan, amongst many, many other

countries. These shifts show that when

governments act with intention,

um with decisiveness, with political

will, that violence indeed can decline.

And that's why this year's 16 days to

end violence against women and girls is

centered on ending digital violence

because digital safety is now

foundational to women's safety, to

women's rights, and to women's role in

public life. At UN women, we are working

to shift this trajectory by advancing

global norms and standards to um ensure

that there are enforcable national

frameworks by strengthening data and the

data systems that collect data by

transforming digital ecosystems and

social norms. And by supporting

coordinated justice, including with the

police sector, with social services, as

well as with the technology sector so

that survivors can actually access

timely help, can access safe and

effective remedies.

During these 16 days, we will launch

some new tools, some new research, and

new resources to support evidence-based

legislation and policing. But we also kn

know that tools will not be enough to

change the numbers that you are hearing

about today. Tools really only matter

when political will gives them their

force. And so when those choices are not

made, the cost really is carried by the

women and girls who should still be with

us today. I think we honor the women and

girls who aren't here, who have died

because of femicide by changing what um

the future looks like, what tomorrow

looks like. By building systems where

their safety is actually non-negotiable.

By building systems where gender

equality is actually understood as the

foundation for justice and peace.

And the pathway to that world, if we

choose it, is one that we believe makes

safety a reality for women and girls

everywhere. With this, I thank you.

>> Thank you so much. Thank you. We will

open the floor now to uh questions and

um all of our guests here I'm sure will

be happy to answer. Um Doulius, go

ahead.

>> Oh, thanks very much. Why do you account

for the uh slight decrease uh annually

in in is it because you're keeping

closer track uh and and what is the form

of uh murder generally in the home and

uh what's your uh thoughts on president

of the United States referring to a

journalist as piggy? Does that encourage

more violence against women either in

the home or outside? Thanks.

um our guests online um either David.

Yes, please go ahead.

>> Thank you. Um so indeed the the figure

is slightly lower than last year but

when we publish those uh numbers on the

global estimates of femicides we have

some uncertainty around these figures

because we do not get data from all

countries for all years. So this

decrease is actually not really

significant. Um it's still within what

we call the interval of uncertainty. So

um we do not actually or we cannot say

there's a decrease and and that's mostly

related to to the fact that we have

slightly different um we have different

countries with data depending on the

year u regarding the form of murder uh

occurring in the home.

Most of the killings by intimate

partners or family members in regions

where we have sufficient data are

actually committed by intimate partners.

Uh so in Europe that's 64% of the

killings are committed by intimate

partners and in the Americas it's 69%.

>> Thank you David and Mr. Sarah.

>> Sure. Um on your third question, um

indeed any time that a woman is conveyed

in derogatory ways is unacceptable and I

think a reminder that no woman um is uh

safe from harassment. But I think this

speaks to a much wider reality that um

women face um usually uh when faced with

remarks whether on the streets, in their

homes, um in the workplace, wherever

this takes place. And that is that that

violence um can spark and uh can

reinforce the perceptions of women that

women are less valued or that women are

less worthy. Um, this too in terms of

the social norms that underpin both

femicide as well as online violence

needs to change.

>> Thank you. Um, Pam and then Nemo.

>> Thank you so much. Really interesting

research and well done. Uh, it's Pamela

Faulk from US News and World Report.

Number one, if I understood correctly,

um the numbers on femicide have

maintained around the same. And so my

question is with so much um exposure to

this in the last at least five years

with me too with all this, why hasn't it

gone down? And and I know why is often a

tough question for report uh writers,

but uh the second is on the digital um

what kind of tools are you introducing?

And it seems inconceivable but true uh

that uh that these uh that that um that

what you said about uh uh femicide can

be broadcast live. I mean, isn't there a

crackdown? Isn't there a ability to uh

prosecute or or at least call out some

of these any kind of website? Isn't it

trackable to to be able to stop it? So,

thank you.

>> Thank you so much, Miss Monero.

>> Thank you so much for your question, and

it's really very pertinent. Why don't we

really see this data changing? This is

very important. I have to say that we

have seen we have acknowledged some

progress in laws policies in many

countries. For example, marital rape

right now has been criminalized in many

countries. So we see some progress

around loss policies, women's movements

raising awareness like uh the me too

neonos but awareness raising and

campaigns are not enough. Laws are not

enough. What do we really need to have

in place? It's first of all budgets,

adequate resources, political will to

enforce the legislation and also we need

to address impunity. And that's why the

role of the police, law enforcement

officials, the justice sector is really

central to have the right capacity and

the right uh information and tools in

order to make sure that these cases are

getting to court and they are getting

justice. So to address impunity and to

have a very clear message that violence

against women and girl is not tolerated.

And if I may add around you, you you

asked a very good question around

digital violence. What are the tools?

What do we need to do in order to stop

having digital violence? Sometimes such

violent crimes there live streamed

through the digital platforms. I have to

say there that very often we hear that

uh women they need to protect

themselves. Women they need to protect

and make their account safe that there

are tools for that. But it's very

important that we don't have only women

having the responsibility to protect

themselves. It's very important that

we're having regulation. We have the

right legal frameworks in place that

digital violence is getting criminalized

and at the same time offering to

survivors protection and support civil

remedies as alternatives in order to

address the harm they have been doing.

And there I think it's very very

important the responsibility and

accountability that technology platforms

they need to have in order to stop such

violence before it happens. So if we

have the right content moderation, if we

have the right accountability in place,

the right reporting, how they monitor

the bias that they are created and how

do they stop disinformation and

misinformation

and deep fakes already happening and

which reinforce such violence against

women and girls both in online and

offline spaces.

>> Thank you. Would anybody like to add

anything? Um or otherwise we can go.

Namo, please go ahead.

>> Uh thank you Namo Abdullah with Ruda

Media Network. Thank you for this timely

and important presentation.

Uh I have um I need one clarification

and I have two questions if you allow

me. Uh I think both both Candace and

Sarah talked about this. One of you I

think said the most dangerous place is

home for women. Is it is home more

dangerous for women than men or is it

actually more dangerous for women to be

home than on the street? Can you please

clarify that? And secondly, and uh you

talked about of course the uh negative

role that AI and technologies have

played in amplifying violence against

women.

Is there a possibility for AI to play a

positive role as well, especially in

data collection? Uh and thirdly uh over

the past few years we've seen um a lot

of controversy over the participation of

trans women in uh women's sports. Some

people viewed as violence against women

especially in high impact sports like

boxing where they retain biological

trans women appear to retain uh you know

more power or uh body mass for example

muscle mass and where does where does

any of you stand on this or where does

the United Nations stand on this do you

consider trans women women thank you

>> thank you Namu

starting with Mrs. Mero.

>> So, regarding if uh women are safer at

home than in the streets, we have more

data about

uh safety at home and the violence they

may face from uh their partners or other

family members and that's what we can

count. We don't have enough data about

the safety and sexual harassment that

they face in public spaces including in

the streets, public transportation. But

we have a lot of an anecdotal

information that the sexual harassment

and violence that women face in the

streets is really prevalent and very

very significant as well. And I think

regarding the AI positive role, by all

means, we have already a lot of advances

of how the AI can be used for for

justice, for giving justice, for

collecting digital fores evidence, for

example, for having AI chatbots in order

to provide information to survivors on

where they can find uh services. But in

order to have these systems in place, we

really need to make sure that women and

girls when they access these services,

they feel safe and they don't have uh

they don't have to face any any

violence.

>> And maybe I can just add a point around

um the home um and also make a

connection to the digital space. Um, in

fact, we we do know that males and

females are experiencing bullying um

online and hate speech. However, online

abuse is unacceptable to everyone. But

it is women who experience that abuse in

far more sexualized and gendered ways

causing them to deplatform and or um to

face more um specific sexualized attacks

um and creating the conditions for the

impact on their lives to be that much

worse. Um we do see uh in our data that

90 to 95% of deep fakes across the world

are actually of uh women and

specifically of sexual images of women.

Um and so when we just look at the data

in and of itself, well men are more uh

vulnerable to homicides that exist

outside the home. Women are increasingly

vulnerable to femicide that exists um by

an intimate partner or within the home

and also facing that connection with

digital violence that has a continuum um

from online to offline realities. Um and

I think the challenge here is how to

make the digital space safer for

everyone. Um in terms of your question

uh around athletes um I think here we

align really with a overall principle of

non-discrimination and advocate um

essentially for all women and girls and

every person that is born um with the

same human rights really leveraging and

uh reinforcing the universal declaration

of human rights um and its principles of

non-discrimination

um uh and upholding their rights is

central of course to the mission of the

United Nations. I think we remain

steadfast um to the vision of a world

where the safety, the security, the

access to rights as well as the dignity

of all people regardless of identity,

regardless of expression are protected

and indeed are fully realized.

>> Thank you.

Maybe if I could just come in on the

data if that's okay.

>> Yes, Candace, we were coming to

>> Thank you very much.

>> Yeah, to to make the point. So, you

know, as we noted with homicides in

general, uh more men are victims of a

homicide in total. So, we have 80% of

victims worldwide are men, 20% are

women. But the numbers when we look down

at where and why those homicides are

happening are very different when we're

looking at the homicides of men versus

the homicides of women. And that is

again we have clear data that 60% of

these women that are uh intentionally

killed are killed by either their

intimate partners or other family

members. And that's why we talk about

within the home. Now there are 40% of

those women that are killed outside the

home and as it was pointed out in in the

beginning we don't have very clear data

on which percentage of those 40% that

are outside the home are killed because

they're women that their killing has

some kind of gender dimension as we were

saying whether it was previous

harassment or or other things. But this

number is still stark and it's that

number that's been quite consistent over

time. uh when we look at uh the fact

that so many women you know 60% are

clearly you know killed because of you

know a close family member an intimate

partner and in the home and that number

is very different it's very stark when

we compare that to men where it's only

11% of homicides that happen there with

almost 90% that of homicides happening

outside for other reasons and I think

for that reason it is important when we

look at the responses as been outlined

earlier we need to take that into

account in terms of how we can best

protect women and girls.

>> Thank you. Norin, you have a question.

Go ahead.

>> Thank you very much. My name is Norin

Hussein with IPS News. Um just have two

questions. My first is uh whether your

teams are able to find any data that to

measure the the correlation between

technology facilitated violence or um

and femicide as in cases where incidents

of cyber stalking or releasing of um

coerced images or other online crimes uh

culminated in a in a real world crime.

Um and second and this is just to follow

up on my colleagues questions on digital

violence and on um

regulations around that. Um how would

you advise uh working with the tech with

the social media companies and the tech

companies to uh implement and better

enforce uh regulations that would

protect um women and girls that use

these spaces. um particularly when uh a

lot of these uh companies are in some

ways um incentivized with the continued

engagement and with like the um the

dissemination of a lot of uh of of post

particularly incendiary posts because

they get they got the most reactions and

the most engagements. Thank you.

>> Thank you so much Narin for your really

insightful both questions. Um indeed as

you've pointed to online violence is not

only online it is indeed part of the

same continuum that can end in femicide.

Evidence is growing showing how violence

in the online space such as coercive

control, but also surveillance

um surveillance through and stalking

through digital means may actually

manifest in the offline space in various

ways including through physical violence

and at the very worst through lethal

violence. There is research in the UK

that shows that research on killings

committed in the domestic fear sphere

showed that 60% of the victims had been

controlled or surveyed online before

being killed.

So 60% had some sort of experience of

cyber stalking essentially.

women with high levels of public

visibility as I said in my previous

commentary um are experiencing death

threats and uh they experience I think

an elevated risk of technology

facilitated violence. So that's one in

four women journalists globally and

between one in four and one in three

women in public life specifically

parliamentarians that data point refers

to. However, we know that the connection

between these two pieces needs to be

better understood and right now there is

an insufficiency in data systems to do

that. And that is why UN women and UNODC

are addressing the intersections of

technology facilitated violence against

women and girls and femicide. And so we

do have guidance that is forthcoming for

measuring just that

measuring technology facilitated

violence leading to gender- related

killings. This will be a technical brief

which aims to complement the statistical

framework for measuring the gender

related killings of women and girls by

actually introducing a methodological

guidance that can identify and record

the tech aspects of that the digital

component. the cyber surveillance or the

cyber stalking aspects as part of that

continuum of violence that um connects

to and leads to gender related killings

of women and girls. Your second question

um I think uh I'll turn to my colleague

um and chief of ending violence against

women and girls at UN women to respond.

>> Thank you for for your question.

[clears throat] It's really important

that there is strengthened collaboration

across the tech platforms,

the law enforcement

sectors for exchange of information and

sometimes for stopping the abuse getting

spread in tech platforms and making sure

that the regulations already in place

are enforced. We already have some

significant pieces of legislation around

the world like the EU digital act uh the

take down act here in the US for example

where they have to oblige tech platforms

to take the uh deep fakes and the

non-conensual shared images for example

down because very often what survivors

want is the harm to stop and the harmful

content to to be removed. It's very

important that technology platforms they

do share promising practices across the

different platforms to make sure that

such regulations are enforced and making

sure as well that there is collaboration

with women's rights organizations with

service providers to provide the right

support services for survivors when this

harm happens. Can I

>> of course yes please.

>> You know this has been a very data

forward um uh event and um briefing and

so I'd like to bring another very

critical data point into the room. Um

this was advanced and communicated as

part of the SDG gender snapshot report

that UN women produces on an annual

basis with uh UN Desa and that is that a

whole of government and a whole of

society approach with comprehensive

action to end violence against women

actually makes a statistically

significant difference to ending

violence. And we have the evidence. The

rates of intimate partner violence in

countries that have invested into that

comprehensive package have rates that

are 2.5 percentage points lower than

countries without that. And that

includes working with the private

sector, working with the digital um

producers uh and platforms. Um and it

reinforces I think a really important

point which is this is a critical

moment. The acceleration especially of

online violence is at such a uh

accelerated pace that the moment to act

is now so that everyone can be

protected. And governments really as as

Calopia said are beginning to modernize

laws to match the realities of digital

abuse. But this momentum must actually

accelerate. We need to see not only

every part of society jump in, but

strong legal frameworks and global

cooperation so that enforcement actually

works across borders and really that

online safety becomes a legal standard

and not a privilege for just some women

and just some girls.

>> Thank you. David, did you want to come

in or

>> Yes. Um thank you. Um and and I would

like to add a bit to what my colleagues

from you and women were saying on the

link between femicad and technology

facilitated violence against women and

girls. um for many many countries it's

very difficult already um to to measure

femic and that's why we're working with

UN women on the um implementation of the

statistical framework for measuring

femicide um and really trying to then

also link it to technology facilitated

violence against women and girl also

really require a lot of efforts from

criminal justice institutions and that's

why we we are developing some technical

guidelines on that issue Um we also

recently had the adoption u of the cyber

crime uh the United Nations convention

against cyber crime which is a victory

for uh victims of online abuse because

it's the first treaty that recognizes um

the non-consensual dissemination of

intimate images as an offense. uh it

provides languages and legal framework

for member states to integrate uh it in

the national legislation and we really

hope that it will also uh lead to to to

progress. Thank you.

>> Thank you so much. Um are there any

questions in the room or online?

If not then I'd like to thank our guests

here in the room and online from UN

women and UNODC. And I'd like to remind

everybody that at 2 p.m. also on the

same subject, the president of the

general assembly uh will also be here to

brief uh journalists. And if if you

would like to share with us later your

presentation and um uh your remarks,

your briefing in the beginning, then we

can share them with Jonas.

report.

>> Yes.

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you so much, Miss

>> Thank you.

>> The femicide report is available online

on both UN women as well as UNODC sites

and we'd be happy to follow up to ensure

that you have access to that. Thank you.

>> Thank you. I appreciate it. Appreciate

your time.