Home remains most dangerous place for women, girls: UN report
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United Nations on Tuesday warned that home remains "the most dangerous" place for women and girls in terms of the risk of homicide, saying that household or family members are most likely to commit such crimes.
"The home continues to be the most dangerous place for women and girls in terms of the risk of homicide," according to a new report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Tuesday.
“The largest share of intentional killings of women and girls worldwide are perpetrated by intimate partners or other family members,” the report stated.
According to the report, 83,000 women and girls were “intentionally” killed in 2024, of whom nearly 50,000 were killed by intimate partners or other family members in 2024 worldwide.
This is lower than the 2023 estimate of 51,000, the report revealed, noting that "this change is not indicative of an actual decrease as it is largely due to differences in data availability at the country level."
Sarah Hendriks, Director of Programme in Policy and Intergovernmental Division at the UN Women said during a press briefing on Tuesday that “one woman or girl is killed every ten minutes by an intimate partner or by her family member.”
Candice Welsch, Director of the Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs noted that "60 percent of these women that are intentionally killed are killed by either their intimate partners or other family members,"
An estimated 137 women and girls are killed every day by a member of their own family, according to the report, with Africa recording the highest rates of victims relative to its female population - three per 100,000.
The report also warns that technology-facilitated abuse - including cyberstalking, coercive control, and the non-consensual sharing of images - can heighten the risk of offline violence and, in some cases, escalate into femicide.
"We do see in our data that 90 to 95 percent of deep fakes across the world are actually of women and specifically of sexual images of women," Hendriks added.
Meanwhile, Kalliopi Mingeirou, chief of Ending Violence against Women and Girls Section at the UN Women said modern technology has been helpful.
"We have already a lot of advantages of how the AI can be used for justice, for giving justice, for collecting digital evidence, for example," she said.
Responding to a question by Rudaw regarding the possible integration of Kurdish women fighters in Syria, UN General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock, said that peace could last longer, not only in Syria, but in every country "if women are engaged.” She added that "the inclusion of women is highly important for peace, for security and also for an open and free society."
Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) chief Mazloum Abdi, signed a landmark deal with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in March that seeks to integrate all civil and military institutions in northeast Syria (Rojava) into the Syrian state apparatus.
Talks about how the integration will proceed have been ongoing for months. One issue is the future of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), an all-female Kurdish force - a core element of the SDF, Rojava’s de facto military force.
"If women are being included, this also ensures that everyone in a society can be free - also minorities, also other groups, children of society," Baerbock said.
She talked about her conversation with Hind Kabawat, Minister of Social Affairs and Labour of Syria, during a summit in Doha, citing the minister as highlighting the importance of women inclusion in the new Syria, including female Kurdish fighters.
Namo Abdullah contributed to this report from New York.
"The home continues to be the most dangerous place for women and girls in terms of the risk of homicide," according to a new report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Tuesday.
“The largest share of intentional killings of women and girls worldwide are perpetrated by intimate partners or other family members,” the report stated.
According to the report, 83,000 women and girls were “intentionally” killed in 2024, of whom nearly 50,000 were killed by intimate partners or other family members in 2024 worldwide.
This is lower than the 2023 estimate of 51,000, the report revealed, noting that "this change is not indicative of an actual decrease as it is largely due to differences in data availability at the country level."
Sarah Hendriks, Director of Programme in Policy and Intergovernmental Division at the UN Women said during a press briefing on Tuesday that “one woman or girl is killed every ten minutes by an intimate partner or by her family member.”
Candice Welsch, Director of the Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs noted that "60 percent of these women that are intentionally killed are killed by either their intimate partners or other family members,"
An estimated 137 women and girls are killed every day by a member of their own family, according to the report, with Africa recording the highest rates of victims relative to its female population - three per 100,000.
The report also warns that technology-facilitated abuse - including cyberstalking, coercive control, and the non-consensual sharing of images - can heighten the risk of offline violence and, in some cases, escalate into femicide.
"We do see in our data that 90 to 95 percent of deep fakes across the world are actually of women and specifically of sexual images of women," Hendriks added.
Meanwhile, Kalliopi Mingeirou, chief of Ending Violence against Women and Girls Section at the UN Women said modern technology has been helpful.
"We have already a lot of advantages of how the AI can be used for justice, for giving justice, for collecting digital evidence, for example," she said.
Responding to a question by Rudaw regarding the possible integration of Kurdish women fighters in Syria, UN General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock, said that peace could last longer, not only in Syria, but in every country "if women are engaged.” She added that "the inclusion of women is highly important for peace, for security and also for an open and free society."
Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) chief Mazloum Abdi, signed a landmark deal with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in March that seeks to integrate all civil and military institutions in northeast Syria (Rojava) into the Syrian state apparatus.
Talks about how the integration will proceed have been ongoing for months. One issue is the future of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), an all-female Kurdish force - a core element of the SDF, Rojava’s de facto military force.
"If women are being included, this also ensures that everyone in a society can be free - also minorities, also other groups, children of society," Baerbock said.
She talked about her conversation with Hind Kabawat, Minister of Social Affairs and Labour of Syria, during a summit in Doha, citing the minister as highlighting the importance of women inclusion in the new Syria, including female Kurdish fighters.
Namo Abdullah contributed to this report from New York.