In 2024, Africa recorded the largest numbers of female intimate partner and family-related killings with an estimated 22,600 victims (3 victims per 100,000 female population).  

The Americas and Oceania also recorded high rates of family-related femicide, (at 1.5 and 1.4 per 100,000 respectively), while the rates were significantly lower in Asia and Europe (at 0.7 and 0.5 per 100,000 female population respectively). 

Groups at risk: Women in public life, including politicians, journalists, and human rights and environmental defenders, face escalating violence both online and offline. 

• One in four women journalists globally and a third of women parliamentarians in Asia-Pacific have received online death threats. 
• The deaths of 81 women environmental defenders and 34 women human rights defenders were reported in 2022. 
• Indigenous women also face disproportionate risks and transgender women face rising targeted killings worldwide. 

The report also highlights how technology-facilitated violence—such as cyberstalking, coercive control, and image-based abuse—can be a risk factor that escalates offline and, in some cases, leads to femicide.

The report calls for urgent, coordinated prevention:

• strong legal frameworks,
• specialized justice responses,
• multi-agency risk assessment,
• survivor-centred services,
• firearms restrictions, and
• public campaigns that challenge harmful norms.

The report underscores a critical accountability gap in global data—fewer countries are reporting femicide statistics—warning that every victim must be counted to strengthen prevention, ensure justice, and end impunity.