Background

Femicide, or gender-related killings of women, constitutes the most extreme form of violence against women and the most violent manifestation of discrimination against women. It has been a priority for the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women since its establishment, and was the focus of thematic reports in 2012 (A/HRC/20/16) and 2016 (A/71/398). In the latter, the former Special Rapporteur called on States to establish a “femicide watch” and/or observatories, and elaborated on the modalities for establishing such a mechanism. Since then, the mandate has also made yearly calls to States to submit information on the measures taken and provide data on cases of femicide. The progress made in implementing the initiative, and the challenges, were addressed in the mandate’s latest report to the General Assembly (A/76/132).

Ms. Reem Alsalem started her tenure on 1 August 2021 and intends to further continue the mandate’s work on femicide. In particular, she would like to continue the mandate’s efforts to gather data on femicide in the context of the Femicide Watch initiative, and promote States’ engagement on data collection and analysis.

Objectives

The overall aim of the Femicide Watch initiative has been to promote evidence-based policies and strategies for the prevention of femicide, through the collection of comparable data on femicide rates at the national, regional and global level.

States are invited to publish every 25 November (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) data on femicides, or gender-related killings of women, and to share this information with the mandate. The Special Rapporteur also requests information on the steps taken to ensure the institutionalization of mechanisms to monitor femicides, such as observatories or watch bodies; efforts to analyze trends on femicide based on quantitative data and other sources; and policy, legislative or judicial measures to improve the prevention of femicide.

Through this, the Special Rapporteur aims to shed light at the magnitude of femicide worldwide; present current trends, particularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic; share good practices in responding to and preventing femicide; and encourage States that have not yet set up institutional mechanisms to monitor femicide to do so.

Key questions and types of input sought

Taking into account the information already provided to previous calls for submissions and for the aforementioned thematic reports, the Special Rapporteur kindly seeks the continued support of States, National Human Rights Institutions, civil society actors, international organizations, academics and other stakeholders to provide updated information:

1. On additional steps taken to create a national femicide watch and/or femicide observatory and/or observatory on violence against women with a femicide watch role;  observatories at Ombudspersons’ office or Equality Bodies; academic institutions and/or NGOs, or any plans to create one, as applicable.
2. On new measures taken including research and studies undertaken to analyse femicide or gender related killings of women and girls, or homicides of women by intimate partners or family members and other femicides. If available, please share a copy of such studies.
3. On recent developments related to good practices and challenges in implementing an evidence-based response to the prevention of femicide.
4. On recent jurisprudence or case law on femicide.
5. On data, if available, on:
   1. Intimate-partner femicides / homicides of women
   2. Family-related femicides / homicides of women
   3. Other femicides / gender-related homicides of women

Data should be presented for the past 3 years, and provide a comparison between the period since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e. March 2020) and data before then. It should contain absolute numbers as well as the proportion of such killings as compared to other killings (other homicides of women and homicides of men).