Homicide and femicide continues to take the lives of tens of thousands of women and girls worldwide, with no sign of real progress.
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Last year, 83,000 women and girls were killed intentionally. Of them, 60 per cent – 50,000 women and girls – were killed at the hands of intimate partners or family members. This means one woman or girl is killed by a partner or family member almost every 10 minutes – an average of 137 every day. In contrast, just 11 per cent of male homicides were perpetrated by intimate partners or family members. “Femicides don’t happen in isolation. They often sit on a continuum of violence that can start with controlling behavior, threats, and harassment – including online,” said Sarah Hendriks, Director of UN Women’s Policy Division. Women and girls are subjected to this extreme form of violence in every region in the world, notes the 2025 femicide report. It is estimated that the highest rate of femicide by an intimate partner/family member was in Africa (3 per 100,000 women and girls), followed by the Americas (1.5), Oceania (1.4), Asia (0.7) and Europe (0.5). Though femicides are also committed outside of the home, the amount of data remains limited. To help close these gaps, UN Women and UNODC are working closely with countries on the implementation of the 2022 statistical framework to enhance the identification, recording, and classification of gender-related killings of women and girls. Improving data availability will be vital to accurately assess the magnitude and consequences of these femicides, to support effective responses, and seek justice.
We already live in a world where at least one in three women experience physical or sexual violence. Enter a host of extremely powerful AI tools, trained on existing gender biases, now enabling tha t violence to spread further, faster, and in more complex ways. It’s a perfect storm. While technology-facilitated violence against women and girls has been intensifying – with studies showing 16 to 58 per cent of women worldwide impacted – artificial intelligence is creating new forms of abuse and amplifying existing ones at alarming rates. The numbers are stark: one global survey found that 38 percent of women have personal experiences of online violence , and 85 percent of women online have witnessed digital violence against others. This isn't just about what happens on screens. What happens online spills into real life easily and escalates. AI tools target women, enabling access, blackmail, stalking, threats and harassment with significant real-wo...
AI-facilitated violence against women refers to acts of digital abuse generated and spread by AI technology , resulting in physical, sexual, psychological, social, political, or economic harm, or other infringements of women’s rights and freedoms. The scale, speed, anonymity and ease of communication in digital spaces create an enabling context for this violence. Perpetrators feel that they can get away with it, and victims often do not know if and how they can get help, and legal systems are playing catch up with the rapid changes in technology. According to feminist activist and author Laura Bates, the best way to address the risk of digital and AI-powered abuse is “ to recognise that the online-offline divide is an illusion .”
Africa's digital transformation is accelerating at an extraordinary pace. Internet access has grown at more than double the global rate and a new generation is connecting to opportunities their parents could never have imagined. But there is a dark side spreading just as fast as the connectivity itself – one that threatens to lock women and girls out of the very revolution they should be leading. This rising digital violence is more than a gendered threat; it is a challenge to sustainable development itself. When women and girls cannot participate safely online, Africa’s digital transformation cannot deliver the inclusive growth, innovation, and social progress needed to achieve the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals. Africa stands at an inflection point. With 70 per cent of sub-Saharan Africans under 30, this is the world's youngest continent as we experience the fastest technological transformation in history. Internet access in Africa has grown at 16.7 per c...
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