Globally, nearly 50,000 women and girls were killed by their intimate partners or other family members during 2024. Lower than the 2023 estimate of 51,100 victims, this change is not indicative of an actual decrease as it is largely due to differences in data availability at the country level. The 2024 figure means that 60 per cent of the 83,000 women and girls killed intentionally during the year were murdered by their intimate partners or other family members. In other words, an average of 137 women and girls worldwide lost their lives every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative...

P.20 To effectively prevent femicides, targeted policies are needed that address the specific forms of gender-based violence perpetrated in the private sphere, as there are key differences in how intimate partner and other family member femicides occur. Although countries have made efforts to prevent femicides, such killings persist at worryingly high levels. In many cases, femicides are the tragic end to a pattern of ongoing violence, meaning that with the timely and appropriate intervention, they could be prevented. Research shows that female intimate partner homicides are often linked to certain risk factors related to the person committing the crime or the situation surrounding the intentional killing. Common risk factors for intimate partner violence that could lead to femicide include: access to firearms, coercive control, previous history of violence and non-fatal strangulation, stalking, relationship separation and substance use, such as alcohol consumption by the perpetrator, combined with other underlying factors such as lack of social support and accumulation of stressful events...