In her September Newsletter, President Joanna Manganara writes about femicide.First of all she states what femicide is.
Femicide (sometimes referred to also as feminicide or gender-related killing) is specifically defined as the killing of a woman because she is a woman, or the killing of a girl because she is a girl (http://unstudies.org/about-unsa/acuns/acuns-vienna/projects/femicide). Femicide, according to the UN, is the extreme and ultimate manifestation of existing forms of violence against women in patriarchal societies. Crimes of this kind reinforce the idea that women are sexual objects and belong to men. For a case to be considered femicide, there must be an implied intention to carry out the crime, as well as a demonstrated connection between the crime and the gender of the victim.
“Femicide” was proposed as an alternative to the gender-neutral term of homicide which overlooks the realities of inequality and systematic violence against women. Femicides are also sometimes referred to as “crimes of passion” (predominantly in the European context), “honour killings” (mostly in the Middle East) or gendercide (http://www.unicef.org/emerg/files/women_insecure_world.pdf).
The global extent of femicide is estimated at approximately 66,000 victims per year for the period between 2004 and 2009. This represents about almost one-fifth of all homicide victims for an average year. Violence against women is institutionalized to lesser or larger extents through family structures, social and economic frameworks, and cultural and religious traditions. Culturally and socially embedded, femicide continues to be tolerated or justified—with impunity as the norm. Due to the fact that it is so widely accepted, the targeted killing of women very often remains unrecognised, under-reported or neglected by governments (http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/5/un-women-calls-for-urgent-and-effective-action-against-femicide).
PresidentsNewsletterAug2015 WomenHumanRightsDefenders
2015-07 – Presidents Newsletter Post-2015 Development Agenda
