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Recent - Statistics Latin America Femecide - Update Late Feb. 2025 (Statista)

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Recent - Statistics Latin America Femecide - Update Late Feb. 2025 (Statista)

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Femicide rate in Latin America by country 2023 | Statista

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Honduras was the Latin American country with the highest femicide rate as of 2023.

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Article 2 - United Nations On Creation Of Laws Throughout Mexico (More Negative)

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Article 2 - United Nations On Creation Of Laws Throughout Mexico (More Negative)

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Local activist Norma Andrade, who was recently at the UN Office in Geneva to raise awareness about femicide, knows the issue first-hand. Her own daughter, Lilia Alejandra, was murdered in that same city in 2001.

"As my granddaughter would sum it up: we are worth a peanut - which in other words means that a woman is just disposable," she told UN News.

"On one day, she was working in a factory, the next day she disappeared, the next she is found dead, while another person has already replaced her at work, so [her death] is only important to her family - not for society, not for the government, much less for the authorities or the company," she explained.

Impunity is rampant

According to Ms. Andrade, the fact that Juárez is a key border crossing with the United States contributes to the lack of community rootedness, which dehumanizes the population and makes it harder to fight the crime of femicide.

But the problem is not confined there. Across Mexico, around 10 women and girls are killed every day by intimate partners or other family members, according to Government data.

Since 2001 - the year when Lilia Alejandra was killed - 50,000 women have been murdered, while the impunity rate exceeds 95 per cent.

Furthermore, only two per cent of cases end in a criminal sentence and only one in 10 victims dares to report their aggressor.

There is no justice

Ms. Andrade has survived two murder attempts in the 23 years since her daughter's body was discovered, as she continues her quest for justice.

"In Mexico, the growing number of disappearances is real, but this boom in organized crime and drug trafficking has erased what is happening to women, not that it stopped happening, but it is becoming invisible...", she said.

Even though the violence against women is increasing, its visibility is going down - local activist Norma Andrade

Speaking about the lack of justice, she said that even when the skeletal remains of a missing young woman are found, it is an "achievement" as it gives closure to their families. "It gives them a place to go and mourn their daughter," she added.

Since the disappearance of her daughter, Ms. Andrade has been fighting for justice.

"Recently, an expert made me see a reality that I hadn't seen for the past 23 years, one that I didn't want to accept: maybe I won't find justice for Alejandra. Or at least not the legal justice that I want that would put Alejandra's attackers in jail", she stressed.

Her case was transferred to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, located in Costa Rica, in December 2023.

Symbolic justice

"Perhaps we can find moral or symbolic justice," Ms. Andrade said, "because the moment the Mexican State is given a criminal sentence [...] it publicly acknowledges that it didn't protect Alejandra, neither all the Alejandras in the country, nor all those children who were orphaned when their mothers were murdered; and that would alleviate to some extent the lack of legal justice".

Blaming the lack of political will, Ms. Andrade who is also a co-founder of non-profit association of mothers whose daughters were victims of feminicide in Ciudad Juárez, added that the mothers are the ones "swimming against the tide".

Supported by other women, academics, feminists, and civil society, they are the ones "who must go, protest and raise their voices to be taken into account", she said.

In recent years, the crimes have sparked several waves of protests and put gender violence at the top of Mexico's political agenda.

Keeping the issue of femicide in the spotlight and making information available and accessible for women, is key for holding the authorities accountable and preventing violence against women and girls.

Since 2011, UN Women, in partnership with key state institutions, has published periodic studies analysing the scope, trends, characteristics of femicide in the country.

'Look at us'

Ms. Andrade stars in the documentary Norma, in search of justice directed by French journalist Brigitte Leoni, which was screened in Geneva ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November.

She hopes the documentary will bring more visibility to the cases of disappearance, noting that "this boom in organized crime has caused people to flee, crossing into the United States, and drug trafficking has made what is happening to women invisible".

Speaking in Geneva, home to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights ( OHCHR), UN News asked Ms. Andrade what message she would like to share with rights experts.

"Look at us, look at the mothers. Come here and see the families and don't just stick with the image that the government gives to the outside world", she said.

Femicide transcends borders

Violence against women is a global crisis, according to a report by  UN Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNODC), released on the International Day.

The commemoration marks the start of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an annual campaign that runs through 10 December, Human Rights Day.

Regional data shows that femicide transcends borders, socio-economic status and cultures, but its severity varies.

Africa recorded the highest rates of intimate partner and family-related femicides, with 21,700 women killed in 2023, followed by the Americas and Oceania.

In Europe, 64 per cent of victims were killed by their intimate partners; in the Americas, it was 58 per cent.

In contrast, women in Africa and Asia were more likely to be killed by family members than by their partners.

The report revealed that globally, 140 women and girls died every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative in 2023 - one woman killed every 10 minutes.

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Mexico: Boom in organised crime making femicide invisible, local activist says

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With more than 2,526 women murdered in the past three decades - from 1993 through 2023 - and hundreds disappeared, Ciudad Juárez remains Mexico's deadliest city for women.

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MEXICO CITY - Local lawmakers in Mexico approved legislation on Thursday that would suspend parental rights for men being investigated for femicide, the first such reform in the country, as well as ramping up sanctions for those responsible for acid attacks.

Mexico faces some of the world's highest levels of gender violence, and spates of femicides - murders of women or girls on basis of their gender - has sparked fierce protests as women fight for more accountability.

Legislators in central Puebla state unanimously backed a reform to "remove, suspend or modify parental rights in cases of femicide," prompting loud cheers in the chamber following a minute's silence for femicide victims.

The reform is known as Monzón's law after lawyer Cecilia Monzón, who was shot dead last May. Authorities later arrested the key suspect, a former congressman and father of her child.

State lawmakers also unanimously approved legislation to sanction acid attacks with up to 40 years in prison, treating the crime as an equivalent to attempted femicide.

The reform, nicknamed Malena's law, honors saxophone player Maria Elena Ríos, who testified at the debate three years after surviving an acid attack in her home which left her severely burned.

The accused suspect was briefly granted home arrest earlier this year, local media reported, before another judge overturned this.

"May this reform become an example at the national level to give us a better legal framework and access to a life free of violence," local lawmaker Nora Escamilla wrote in a tweet.

While Mexico's government reported a slight drop in the number of femicides last year, the number of women reported killed still shot up in 2022 by over 600 to 7,646 with most cases listed under the lesser offense of manslaughter.

This averages at more than 20 women killed each day. Government data from 2019 showed that for every 100 women killed in Mexico only four result in sentences.

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In Mexico, a state votes to toughen laws against femicides, acid attacks

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Lawmakers in Puebla, Mexico voted to suspend parental rights for men investigated for femicide and ramped up sanctions against those responsible for acid attacks.

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Video - Accessing Justice: Femicide and the Rule of Law in Latin America

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Video - Accessing Justice: Femicide and the Rule of Law in Latin America

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Accessing Justice: Femicide and the Rule of Law in Latin America

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A Protest In The Streets Regarding Violence Against Women

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A Protest In The Streets Regarding Violence Against Women

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A Protest At Night Protesting Femicide And The Creation Of Laws Banning Femicide

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A Protest At Night Protesting Femicide And The Creation Of Laws Banning Femicide

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Headline: Steps to Stop Femicide: Laws, Support Services, and Global Action for Change

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Headline: Steps to Stop Femicide: Laws, Support Services, and Global Action for Change

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The question can be split up into two different answers as the question asks a present question and a question for the future.

The first question can be answered using facts that we already have. For instance Countries in South and Central America have taken steps to stop femicide through new laws, better law enforcement, and support for victims. Mexico in 2007, then Argentina in 2012, and El Salvador 2011 made femicide a crime with tougher penalties. Guatemala and Colombia created special police units to handle cases of violence against women. Chile’s "No More Violence Against Women" was put in place in the country and other countries like Argentina and Brazil opened shelters and support centers for women. Regional agreements like the Belém do Pará made in 1994 also help prevent and punish violence against women.

Moving on to the future question of what could be done, it seems as if this term may be new. Governments like the ones in these regions and countries can help stop femicide by funding shelters, hotlines, and education programs. They really could take more of a stand on the issue. They also can set human rights rules in trade deals and work with the UN and to push countries to enforce laws throughout multiple countries. Supporting groups that track cases and push for change also helps.

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Essential Question: What steps have been taken in South and Central American Countries to stop the growth of "Femicide" and what can be done in the future by powerful governments to enforce the stop as well? 

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Essential Question: What steps have been taken in South and Central American Countries to stop the growth of "Femicide" and what can be done in the future by powerful governments to enforce the stop as well? 