Taking stock of the femicide watch initiative

The present report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Dubravka Šimonović, is submitted to the General Assembly pursuant to resolution 75/161. The report takes stock of two of the main initiatives implemented by the Special Rapporteur during her tenure: the femicide watch prevention initiative, which is aimed at fostering the creation of observatories or watch bodies to monitor and better inform Governments’ responses to and prevention of femicide or gender-related killings of women and girls; and the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on the Elimination of Discrimination and Violence against Women (EDVAW Platform), established to promote closer collaboration and coordination between United Nations¹ and regional² expert mechanisms on women’s rights and violence against women (see also para. 9 below). By providing a synthesis of the achievements and challenges on these two fronts, the Special Rapporteur hopes to contribute to future growth and expansion of those initiatives and calls on all States and other stakeholders to support them.

1. In addition to the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, the EDVAW Platform includes the following United Nations entities: Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and Working Group on discrimination against women and girls. ↩
2. Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI); Council of Europe Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO); Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights; and Rapporteur on the Rights of Women of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. ↩

Many of the Special Rapporteur’s regular and mandated activities have continued to be affected by the restrictive measures imposed as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. She was unable to carry out the planned country visit to Mongolia, despite the Government’s willingness to receive her, or the visit to Papua New Guinea.

On 7 March 2021, the Special Rapporteur delivered a recorded statement to the fourteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which was held in a hybrid format in the city of Kyoto, Japan.

On 15 March 2021, the Special Rapporteur made a statement³ to the sixty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, in which she presented the main achievements of her tenure, with a focus on her thematic work on violence against women in politics, femicide and rape. She called on the Commission to include violence against women as a permanent agenda item.

3. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/CSW/CSW65.pdf. ↩

The Special Rapporteur continued to lead the EDVAW Platform. On 17 March 2021, on the margins of the Commission on the Status of Women, a high-level panel of the Platform was held to take stock of its work and its links with the Commission. At that event, the Platform launched two booklets, which compile the contribution of the expert mechanisms towards the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and called for a human rights-based approach in the implementation of strategies for the elimination of discrimination and violence against women.⁴ The EDVAW Platform also published, on 24 March 2021, a statement⁵ issuing several calls to the Commission, States and other stakeholders, such as the inclusion of violence against women as a separate standing agenda item of the Commission and increased collaboration between the Commission and the expert mechanisms by inviting the mechanisms to participate in an interactive dialogue to present their respective reports and recommendations (see also paras. 12–15 below).

4. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/SR/EDVAW_Booklets.pdf. ↩
5. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26945&LangID=E. ↩

On 17 May 2021, the Special Rapporteur delivered a recorded statement to the thirtieth session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which was held in a hybrid format in Vienna. In addition to highlighting her work on the issues of rape and femicide, the Special Rapporteur called on the Commission to include violence against women as a permanent and specific agenda item, which should be addressed annually by its members.

The Special Rapporteur attended the forty-seventh session of the Human Rights Council in person, where she presented a thematic report on rape as a grave, systematic and widespread human rights violation, a crime and a manifestation of gender-based violence against women and girls, and its prevention (A/HRC/47/26). She also presented a document containing a framework for model legislation on rape, which is envisaged as a harmonization tool (A/HRC/47/26/Add.1). The Special Rapporteur thanks relevant delegations, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations and other stakeholders for the constructive dialogue during the session of the Council.

In her vision-setting report from 2016 (A/HRC/32/42 and A/HRC/32/42/Corr.1), the Special Rapporteur announced her intention to work closely with special procedure mandate holders, other mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, the treaty bodies and regional mechanisms. She set out to develop strong cooperation and synergies among independent United Nations and regional mechanisms on violence and discrimination against women, and led the efforts to create the EDVAW Platform, which was formally established on 12 March 2018. The Platform promotes institutional links and thematic cooperation among the mechanisms, with a view to improving implementation of the existing international legal and policy framework on violence against women.

The Special Rapporteur’s endeavour to establish the EDVAW Platform has been threefold: to increase cooperation between global and regional independent mechanisms on women’s rights; to develop harmonized positions, practices and guidelines, and to speak with one voice; and to improve implementation of the mechanisms’ recommendations on ending violence against women. The Platform includes seven independent expert mechanisms, namely the Special Rapporteur herself; the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls of the Human Rights Council; the Committee of experts of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention; the Council of Europe Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence; the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights; and the Rapporteur on the Rights of Women of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The EDVAW Platform has successfully delivered numerous joint efforts, harmonized statements and synchronized guidelines, including on violence against women in politics, on pushbacks against women’s rights, on rape and consent, on ending the global epidemic of femicide and gender-related killings, on conflict-related gender-based violence against women, and on domestic violence and child custody. Moreover, the Platform has consistently invited, called on and reiterated to several high-level platforms the importance of using a human rights-based approach in promoting women’s rights and gender equality, such as in the review of Sustainable Development Goal 5 in the context of the high-level political forum on sustainable development and in the monitoring and review of the Beijing Platform for Action.⁶

6. Information on the activities of the EDVAW Platform is available at www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/CooperationGlobalRegionalMechanisms.aspx. ↩

The Platform’s experts met for official meetings on nine occasions, including three regional meetings, in which the participants from each of the mechanisms updated each other, discussed current priorities and planned joint actions. For example, in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the members met online and discussed the impact of the pandemic on violence against women. Subsequently, the experts issued a joint statement urging States to take steps to combat the global pandemic of gender-based violence by ensuring “peace at home” during lockdown and integrating the elimination of discrimination and gender-based violence against women in the COVID-19 recovery phase and beyond.⁷

7. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), “Urgent action needed to end pandemic of gender-based violence, say women’s rights experts”, 14 July 2020. ↩

Also in 2020, the Platform launched a joint publication entitled “25 years in review of the Beijing Platform for Action: contributions of the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on the Elimination of Discrimination and Violence against Women (EDVAW Platform) towards its implementation”. This booklet outlines the formation, the activities and the need for formal institutionalization of the Platform as a joint response in respecting, protecting and promoting women’s rights around the world.

Moreover, in 2021, the experts released a second joint publication during a high-level panel held in the margins of the sixty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The publication is aimed at shedding light on the contribution of the EDVAW Platform, as well as providing a unified response to the many challenges that remain for the full enjoyment of women’s right to a life free from discrimination and violence. Specifically, it contains updates on the Platform itself and on the Platform’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights examples of the work carried out by the expert mechanisms in detecting systematic obstacles in laws and in practice, as well as in the examination of cases of violence and discrimination against women.

Notably, the publication included a joint proposal by the EDVAW Platform to the Commission on the Status of Women on how to improve synergies between the Commission and the Platform. In addition, in a joint statement,⁸ the Platform called on the Commission to adopt a human rights-based approach to the implementation of strategies for the elimination of discrimination and violence against women and the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, as presented in the publication.

8. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26945&LangID=E. ↩

The joint proposal includes several recommendations to the Commission on the Status of Women, such as creating a separate standing agenda item on violence against women, expanding cooperation and the focus on implementation of human rights instruments related to eliminating discrimination and gender-based violence against women and girls, and extending formal invitations to regional and global independent women’s rights expert bodies to participate in the sessions of the Commission.

The EDVAW Platform has demonstrated the benefits of joint and coordinated work among expert mechanisms, and the increased collective impact that the mechanisms can have by speaking in one voice. The Platform’s sustainability depends on the commitment by Member States to institutionalize it and ensure continued funding for its activities.⁹ In addition, and despite the many calls issued by the Platform, there is still insufficient participation and integration of the expert mechanisms in United Nations forums such as the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, thereby making insufficient use of their work, recommendations and expertise from the perspective of women’s human rights. The Special Rapporteur urges all Member States to support the Platform and its calls for further integration at the United Nations and regional levels.

9. The Special Rapporteur would like to thank the Governments of the Republic of Korea, Spain and Switzerland, whose generous contributions allowed for the implementation of the Platform in its first years. ↩

The overall aim of the femicide watch prevention initiative is to contribute to the prevention of femicide or intentional gender-related killings of women and girls through the collection of comparable data at the national, regional and global levels and to contribute to the prevention of these killings through analyses of cases by national multidisciplinary bodies (observatories on femicide or violence against women). Such analyses should be carried out from a human rights perspective, using international human rights instruments on women’s rights and on violence against women, and should detect shortcomings within national laws and policies. Such bodies should be mandated to recommend measures for prevention of such cases, including on laws and their implementation.

Femicide has been defined by the Special Rapporteur as the killing of women because of their sex and/or gender; “femicide” and “gender-related killing of women” have been used interchangeably to name such killings (see A/71/398). The Special Rapporteur follows General Assembly resolutions 68/191 and 70/176, which address action against gender-related killing of women and girls, while noting it is criminalized in some countries as “femicide” or “feminicide”. Understanding that each State will decide on the terminology used, the Special Rapporteur stresses that terminology should not be an obstacle for the collection of comparable homicide data, based on the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator. The Special Rapporteur has recommended that States should collect data under three broad categories: intimate-partner femicide and family-related femicide, based on the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, and other femicides, according to the local context.

The femicide watch initiative has been a priority for the Special Rapporteur since the beginning of her tenure. Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November 2015, the Special Rapporteur issued a call¹⁰ for all States to establish a femicide watch, urging them to publish on 25 November each year the number of femicides or gender-related killing of women per year, disaggregated by age and the sex of the perpetrators, as well as the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim or victims. Information concerning the prosecution and punishment of perpetrators should also be collected and published. She also called on the United Nations and other organizations to ensure the global and regional publication of such data.

10. OHCHR, “UN rights expert calls all States to establish a ‘Femicide Watch’”, 23 November 2015. ↩

In her vision-setting report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/32/42 and A/HRC/32/42/Corr.1) in 2016, the Special Rapporteur included the establishment of a “femicide watch” among her thematic priorities. In her subsequent report to the General Assembly (A/71/398), the Special Rapporteur further expanded on her initiative, describing the previous work carried out by the special procedure mandate holder on femicide, key steps taken at the international level and good practices, and, particularly, elaborated on the modalities for establishing such watch bodies or observatories and the methodology for data collection.

Since then, the Special Rapporteur has issued yearly calls for States, national human rights institutions and other stakeholders to submit data on femicide or gender-related killings of women. She also requests information on: (a) legislative models or operational guides for the investigation of gender-related killings of women; (b) good practices regarding collection of data on femicides or gender-related killings of women; and (c) landmark jurisprudence from international, regional and national courts on gender-related killings of women. An additional call for inputs to the preparation of the present report was issued on 15 March 2021.¹¹ The Special Rapporteur is thankful for the continued collaboration and information provided throughout the years, which have been considered in the drafting of the report.

11. See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/CFI-taking-stock-femicide.aspx. ↩

Throughout her tenure, the Special Rapporteur has continuously made calls to States to intensify efforts to prevent and combat femicide. In her yearly addresses to the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the Special Rapporteur reiterated her calls and invited all States to create their own femicide watch bodies or observatories.¹²

12. See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/AnnualReports.aspx#csw. ↩

The centrality of data collection and monitoring in State efforts to combat violence against women was reaffirmed by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. In its general recommendation No. 35 (2017), updating general recommendation No. 19 (1992), which was developed in collaboration with the Special Rapporteur, the Committee recommended that States parties establish a system to regularly collect, analyse and publish statistical data on the number of complaints of violence. This system should include information on the sentences imposed on perpetrators and reparations, including compensation, provided to victims. The Committee also recommended that data should be disaggregated by the type of violence, the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator and other relevant sociodemographic characteristics. It explained that the analysis of the data should enable the identification of failures in protection and serve to improve and further develop preventive measures, which could include the establishment of observatories on femicide, echoing the Special Rapporteur’s previous calls.

On 16 and 17 January 2019, the Special Rapporteur attended a consultation on femicide organized in Vilnius by the European Institute for Gender Equality and the European Observatory on Femicide. The purpose of this consultation was to develop modalities for the collection of comparable data on femicide.

On 13 March 2019, in the margins of the sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Special Rapporteur organized a side event on the theme “25 years of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women: the femicide watch initiative and the role of international and regional mechanisms in its prevention”.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Special Rapporteur presented a report to the General Assembly in 2020 (A/75/144) on the intersection between the COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemic of gender-based violence against women, in which she highlighted the dramatic increase globally in cases of domestic violence. While national prevention systems often lack reliable data in so-called normal times, the COVID-19 context made it even more difficult to get a clear picture of the potential increase in femicide as a result of the pandemic and the related lockdown measures. The Special Rapporteur emphasized the importance of tracking femicides during the COVID-19 pandemic and stressed that pre-existing gaps in the response to domestic violence and femicide were being compounded by gaps caused by the pandemic. She has stressed that States that have already started collecting data on femicide will be in a position to compare such data in the COVID-19 context and to evaluate the extent of the increase in femicide during the pandemic.

The EDVAW Platform has also engaged with the Special Rapporteur in promoting the femicide watch prevention initiative. The Platform issued a joint call¹³ on 25 November 2018 for the intensification of international, regional and national efforts for the prevention of femicide and gender-based violence. The experts jointly urged all stakeholders to guarantee every woman and girl a life free from violence by applying holistic integrated policies on prevention, protection and prosecution of violence against women. They also called for the full acceptance, incorporation and implementation of global and regional treaties on women’s rights and violence against women.

13. OHCHR, “International Day on the Elimination of Violence against Women: end the global epidemic of femicide (#NiUnaMenos) and support women speaking up against violence against women (#MeToo).” Available at www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23921&LangID=E. ↩

In 2018, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) made an important contribution to the understanding of femicide by publishing the Global Study on Homicide: Gender-related Killing of Women and Girls. The study reveals that gender-related killings of women and girls remain a grave problem across regions, in countries rich and poor. While the vast majority of homicide victims are men killed by strangers, women make up the vast majority of victims killed by an intimate partner, at 82 per cent. Data the Special Rapporteur has received from States parties reveal a similar pattern.

At the regional level, an important initiative was carried out by the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), which, in March 2019, adopted the Inter-American Model Law on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of the Gender-related Killing of Women and Girls.¹⁴ While recognizing that legislation alone would not eradicate femicide, the model law was developed as a tool to support States in the important work of reviewing and amending legislation that can effectively criminalize and end impunity for this type of violence.

14. Available at www.oas.org/en/mesecvi/docs/LeyModeloFemicidio-EN.pdf. ↩

In his statement to the high-level meeting on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, on 1 October 2020, the Secretary-General called for affirmative action to prevent violence against women, including femicide.

In March 2019, during its fiftieth session, the Statistical Commission requested UN-Women and UNODC to develop a statistical framework on gender-related killings of women, based on the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes and with close collaboration between the two entities. Through the Global Centre of Excellence on Gender Statistics and the UNODC Centre of Excellence for Statistical Information on Governance, Victims of Crime, Public Security and Justice, a technical consultation has been conducted over the past years and a preliminary statistical framework has been developed. In 2021, UN-Women and UNODC launched a global consultation on a common statistical framework on gender-related killings of women and girls (femicide/feminicide), with stakeholders at the national and international levels to collect technical feedback from a broad range of experts and sectors.¹⁵ The Special Rapporteur supports this initiative and has provided her expert feedback on the framework.

15. Submission by UN-Women. ↩

In October 2019, the Special Rapporteur participated in the Beijing+25 regional review meeting organized by the Economic Commission for Europe, in which she presented her femicide watch prevention initiative. The Commission supported the initiative and the meeting report calls on all countries to establish multidisciplinary national bodies such as “femicide watch” with the aim of actively working on the prevention of femicide or gender-related killing of women (ECE/AC.28/2019/2, annex I).

Significant progress has been made in the past five years towards the creation of different types of bodies with the purpose of monitoring violence against women and femicide in particular. Created under different names, mandates and methodologies, with different geographic and thematic scopes, these observatories represent an expansion of institutional capacity to understand, respond to and prevent femicides.

In the country visits carried out by the Special Rapporteur during her tenure, she encouraged the creation of femicide observatories and welcomed steps already taken to do so. In Georgia, the Public Defender decided to set up a femicide watch in 2016, in response to the Special Rapporteur’s call and the recommendations issued in 2014 by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, an initiative welcomed by the Special Rapporteur during her visit (see A/HRC/32/42/Add.3). The initiative is supported by a consultative council, composed of representatives of local and international organizations working on violence against women and domestic violence, which meets every two months. Since the establishment of the mechanism, the Office of the Public Defender has published yearly reports on femicide in which it analyses cases of gender-based murders, attempted murders and suicides of women in order to identify gaps in the victim protection mechanisms and to make recommendations to the relevant agencies. The Public Defender has also held conferences on femicide, to share information on local and international practices.¹⁶

16. Submission by the Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia. ↩

After her visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territory/State of Palestine in 2016 (see A/HRC/35/30/Add.2), the Special Rapporteur expressed her concern regarding the absence of nationwide statistics on violence against women, including femicide. She had been informed of the establishment of a technical committee by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs to review femicides and to examine legislation from a gender perspective, and recommended the creation of a femicide observatory or watch body, in line with her initiative. In 2019, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs set up a national observatory on violence against women.¹⁷

17. Submission by the State of Palestine. ↩

In her report on Argentina (A/HRC/35/30/Add.3), the Special Rapporteur acknowledged the progress made in addressing and collecting data on femicide. The Ni Una Menos movement had brought visibility to the issue and progressive steps had been taken in response. Following the amendment of the Criminal Code of Argentina in 2012 to include femicide as a separate category of aggravated homicide, the first national femicide registry was established in 2015 by the Supreme Court. In 2016, the Office of the National Ombudsman established a femicide observatory. The Special Rapporteur recommended that the Government establish or support femicide observatories and watches in all provinces and collect and publish disaggregated data at the federal and provincial levels.

Since the Special Rapporteur’s visit to Argentina, the Supreme Court has continued its work on the national femicide registry, having launched two initiatives to monitor and analyse femicide: an observatory to monitor the causes of femicide and an observatory for follow-up of femicide sentences.¹⁸ In December 2019, with the creation of a Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity by the national Government, an observatory on violence and inequalities based on gender was established.¹⁹ There have also been several initiatives by civil society to create observatories on violence against women and femicide. The first femicide observatory to be established was the Adriana Marisel Zambrano observatory in 2008, coordinated by the non-governmental organization (NGO) La Casa del Encuentro, which focuses on registering femicides based on information published in the media.²⁰ Other initiatives include the observatory on gender violence and femicides, Ahora que sí nos ven, and the Lucía Pérez Observatory of the Lavaca.org website.²¹ In light of the many existing initiatives, the Special Rapporteur reiterates her recommendation for all of the institutions to cooperate and harmonize the collection of data and analysis of cases.

18. Submission by the Supreme Court of Argentina. ↩
19. Submission by the Government of Argentina. ↩
20. Submission by UN-Women. ↩
21. Submission by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). ↩

After her visit to Ecuador (see A/HRC/44/52/Add.2), the Special Rapporteur regretted that, despite the high rates of femicide in the country, there was a lack of official administrative data on all gender-related killings of women and girls. The Comprehensive Organic Law for the Prevention and Eradication of Violence against Women of 2018 provides for the creation of a national observatory on violence against women, which is now being established and is expected to be operational by November 2021. The observatory will be tasked with preparing reports, studies and proposals for the effective implementation of the Law, through the production, systematization and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data. There is now a technical committee on femicide, an inter-institutional body composed of executive branch bodies, the National Council for Gender Equality, the Office of the Attorney General, the Judicial Council and others. The Committee publishes monthly reports with information on femicide.²²

22. Submission by the Government of Ecuador. ↩

Many other countries have made progress towards creating their own femicide watches or bodies with similar functions. The Government of Spain established an observatory on violence against women in its Ministry of Equality, which gathers data to support decision-making in developing or implementing policies.23 In 2014, the 17 Submission by the State of Palestine. 18 Submission by the Supreme Court of Argentina. 19 Submission by the Government of Argentina. 20 Submission by UN-Women. 21 Submission by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). 22 Submission by the Government of Ecuador. 23 Submission by the Government of Spain. 12/22 Government of Morocco created its national observatory on violence against women. With a triparty composition (the Government, NGOs and academics), the observatory seeks to contribute to research on and monitoring of violence against women. The observatory has published two reports since its creation, in 2016 and²⁴ 2017. 24

24. Submission by the Government of Morocco. ↩

In 2015, the Government of Slovakia established the coordinating-methodical centre for prevention of violence against women, which is responsible for annually gathering and evaluating administrative data on violence against women, including femicide.²⁵ In Croatia, in 2017, the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality founded a monitoring body for comprehensive monitoring, data collection, analysis and reporting of femicide cases (femicide watch). It is composed of representatives of the Government, the judiciary, civil society and academia, and it collects data on femicide, analyses individual cases and makes recommendations on legislation and policy.²⁶ The Government of South Africa launched its femicide watch in 2018, which consists of a repository of information for victims and stakeholders. It provides access to a risk assessment tool and resources for victims, as well as articles and information on femicide.²⁷ In Guatemala, in 2019, the women’s observatory of the Public Ministry was created, comprising a centralized system to collect data on violence against women, including statistics on reports of violence and data on convictions, in order to evaluate the public response to violence against women.²⁸

25. Submission by the Government of Slovakia. ↩
26. Submission by the Government of Croatia. ↩
27. Submission by the Government of South Africa to the 2020 femicide watch call. ↩
28. Submission by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. ↩

In many countries, scholars and universities were at the forefront of efforts to create femicide watch bodies. In Romania, the Institute of Sociology of the Romanian Academy maintains the Romanian observatory for the analysis and prevention of murder, which analyses data on intentional killings in the country, including the characteristics of victims and perpetrators.²⁹ In Honduras, the University Institute on Democracy, Peace and Security at the National Autonomous University of Honduras established a national observatory of violence, as well as regional observatories, to monitor intentional and unintentional killings. The observatory has a gender unit, which prepares reports on violent deaths of women and femicides, based on media reports that are later corroborated with data from the national police and the Division of Forensic Medicine of the Public Ministry. Following this academic initiative, the Government seems to be taking steps towards establishing its own watch body. In 2016, the Government created an inter-institutional commission to follow up on the investigation of violent deaths of women and femicide, which is now working to set up a unified information system on violence against women.³⁰ 30 The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability was established in 2017, and is connected with the Centre for the Study of Social and Legal Responses to Violence of the University of Guelph. It was created in response to the call by the Special Rapporteur, with the purpose of establishing a visible and national focus on social and State responses to femicide in Canada. In addition to analysing data on femicides to identify trends in Canada, it also documents the social and State responses to femicides.³¹ In Israel, the Israel Observatory on Femicide was set up in 2020 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with the purpose of collecting and monitoring data 24 Submission by the Government of Morocco. 25 Submission by the Government of Slovakia. 26 Submission by the Government of Croatia. 27 Submission by the Government of South Africa to the 2020 femicide watch call. 28 Submission by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. 29 Submission by the Romanian Institute for Human Rights. 30 Submission by the Government of Honduras. 31 Submission by the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability to the 2020 femicide watch call. and narratives about the killing of women, with a focus on specific groups such as older women.³²

29. Submission by the Romanian Institute for Human Rights. ↩
30. Submission by the Government of Honduras. ↩
31. Submission by the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability to the 2020 femicide watch call. ↩
32. See www.israelfemicide.org/. ↩

In other countries, civil society has been key in gathering information about femicides and creating their own observatories. In the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the gender observatory of the NGO Coordinadora de la Mujer has been systematizing and disseminating data from the Public Ministry on femicides. In the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Centre for Justice and Peace (CEPAZ) and Utopix track and monitor cases of femicide, disaggregating the data at the local level.³³ In Mexico, the National Citizen Observatory on Femicide is a joint initiative of 40 organizations that monitors and systematizes information on lack of justice for the victims of femicide.³⁴

33. Submission by UNFPA. ↩
34. Submission by the Government of Mexico. ↩

It is also worth mentioning the role local governments can play in creating these types of watch bodies. For example, Seine-Saint-Denis Department in France and the city of Itzapalapa in Mexico created local observatories on violence against women in 2002 and 2018, respectively. These observatories, as well as others in Rivas-Vaciamadrid and Barcelona in Spain, often combine the roles of monitoring and prevention with victim support and providing advice to policymakers.³⁵ These initiatives can contribute to identifying trends and shortcomings that refer to specific territories and recommend policy solutions tailored to particular contexts.

35. Submission by United Cities and Local Governments. ↩

The Special Rapporteur has also received information on a number of other initiatives that, while not consisting of the watch bodies she has recommended, fulfil some of their roles, such as the task force on domestic violence and COVID-19 of the Government of Switzerland; the Family Violence Death Review Committee of New Zealand; and an investigative commission on femicide of the Legislative Assembly of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, established in 2019, which reviewed the justice system’s response and shortcomings in dealing with those cases.³⁶
45 Finally, it should be noted that, at the regional level, the Gender Equality Observatory of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) provides consolidated data on 21 countries of the region. Covering a broad range of issues on violence against women and equality, the ECLAC Observatory presents data on femicide, defined as the gender-related murder of women aged 15 or older.

36. Submissions by the Government of Switzerland, the Government of New Zealand and the Office of the Ombudsman of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. ↩

While the Special Rapporteur recommended a set of roles and mandates for the observatories, which would be carried out by a single body, the institutional design may vary in each country. Likewise, different institutions may create bodies with different scopes and responsibilities. The key concern for Governments and other stakeholders should be to ensure that the following functions are carried out: that data is collected according to the modalities recommended by the Special Rapporteur and is therefore comparable at the regional and global levels; that data is analysed and made public; that cases are reviewed to identify gaps in protection, services and legislation; that recommendations for improvement based on local trends can reach legislators, policymakers and the general public; and that evidence-based legislation and policy reforms can be implemented. It is equally important that collaboration and integration is promoted between initiatives carried out by different entities (Governments, national human rights institutions, the judiciary, civil society, academia, etc.). In the next sections, the Special Rapporteur reviews some good practices for those functions and some of the challenges that remain.

In her report on femicide, the Special Rapporteur followed the stance by UNODC regarding the production of data on gender-related violence in its Global study on homicides of 2013. In that report, UNODC argued that, given the numerous challenges of comprehensively measuring gender-related violence, exploring intimate-partner and family-related homicide would be one way of gaining a clearer understanding of the killing of women because of gender motives. While proposing a flexible model, which could be adapted to local realities, the Special Rapporteur recommended that data collected should include three broad categories: intimate-partner femicide/homicide and family-related femicide/homicide, based on the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, and other femicides or gender-related homicides, according to the local context.

The submissions received indicate that much progress has been made towards the collection and systematization of data on femicide, although with different methodologies and scopes. One comprehensive initiative is carried out in Argentina by the judiciary. The national femicide registry includes information on cases that have led to judicial proceedings and includes data on violent deaths of women and girls for gender-related reasons. Based on the Latin American Model Protocol for the Investigation of Gender-related Killing of Women, of OHCHR and UN-Women, the registry reviews killings of women or suspected killings and suicides, and then filters them according to a list of criteria to determine gender motivation (including the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, sexual violence, cruelty in the modus operandi, and whether the victim was a sex worker or had been trafficked, among others). The registry includes transgender women and transvestites and also contains sociodemographic information on victims and perpetrators, such as age, marital status and occupation, as allowed on the basis of legislation. The data from the registry is presented in an annual report and as an open database. In addition, a yearly report is published on the justice system’s response to femicide cases, in order to identify the need for improvements.³⁷

37. Submission by the Supreme Court of Argentina. ↩

In Slovenia, the Police collect information with a focus on the categories of “gender” and “relationship between victim and perpetrator”, covering the following relationships: ex-spouse or intimate partner, intimate partner, child, parent and spouse. Data include cases of homicide and other types of violence against women and the number of femicides is obtained from the number of murders and manslaughters of women when committed by perpetrators with those types of relationship to the victims.³⁸ In Georgia, the Public Defender analyses data collected and published by the General Prosecutor’s Office. It divides all killings of women into domestic crimes and killings of women on other grounds; and it disaggregates domestic crimes (family killings, by type of relationship between the victim and the perpetrator) and crimes committed by a husband or former husband.³⁹

38. Submission by the Government of Slovenia. ↩
39. Submission by the Public Defender of Georgia. ↩

In many countries, efforts to collect data focus mainly on intimate-partner killings. In Spain, the observatory on violence against women collects data on victims of violence against women, disaggregating it among victims of deadly gender-based violence (defined as intimate-partner killings); women who suffered severe injuries as a result of gender-based violence; victims of other types of deadly violence against women; and victims (Spanish citizens) of deadly gender-based violence killed outside Spain.⁴⁰ Similarly, the observatory of gender equality, created by the regional government of Catalonia in Spain, compiles data on killings of women by current or former intimate-partners, as well as on children killed in the context of such violence.⁴¹ In Morocco, the national observatory on violence against women publishes data on overall femicides and on the number of femicides by current or former intimate partners;⁴² in France, the interministerial mission for the protection of women against violence collects and publishes administrative data on the number of persons killed in the context of intimate-partner violence and family violence;⁴³ and in Croatia, the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality collects information on intimate-partner killings.⁴⁴

40. Submission by the Government of Spain. ↩
41. Submission by the government of Catalonia, Spain. ↩
42. Submission by the Government of Morocco. ↩
43. Submission by the Government of France. ↩
44. Submission by the Government of Croatia. ↩

Femicide is sometimes monitored in the framework of domestic or family violence. In Turkey, data on femicide are collected by law enforcement and include women who lost their lives as a result of domestic violence.⁴⁵ In New Zealand, the Family Violence Death Review Committee collates information on femicide cases as they relate to family violence, including cases of homicide when the perpetrator was a current or former intimate partner, parent, sibling, child or other family member. Data in that country points to a majority of femicides being family-related killings.⁴⁶ In Switzerland, as femicide is not a legal category, statistics refer to homicides of women. In the context of domestic violence, disaggregated information on the relationship between the victim and perpetrator is available.⁴⁷ The Government of Cyprus provided information in 2019 on plans to implement a centralized data collection system on domestic violence, containing a set of indicators (including the sex of the victim and of the perpetrator, the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator and the type of violence), in order to comply with the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and the victims’ rights directive of the European Union.⁴⁸

45. Submission by the Government of Turkey. ↩
46. Submission by the Government of New Zealand. ↩
47. Submission by the Government of Switzerland. ↩
48. Submission by the Government of Cyprus responding to the 2019 Femicide Watch call. ↩

Some countries, particularly in Latin America, have created a specific criminal offence of femicide and collect data in connection with the criminal justice system’s treatment of these cases. In Ecuador, there is a criminal offence of femicide, defined as the killing of a woman for being a woman or for her gender condition. The technical committee for the study of femicide publishes monthly data based on killings that were categorized under that criminal offence; however, there is no disaggregation of data according to the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator or other types of femicide.⁴⁹ In the Plurinational State of Bolivia, data on the number of femicides are made available by the Public Ministry; however, no disaggregated data on the victim or the perpetrator or the relationship between them is collected. The Office of the Public Defender reports that different government bodies are working to set up a unified system to provide more broad information on femicide cases.⁵⁰

49. Submission by the Government of Ecuador. ↩
50. Submission by the Office of the Public Defender of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. ↩

In the absence of data produced by official sources, civil society organizations and initiatives by academia seek to compensate for that gap by gathering publicly available information from other sources on femicide, particularly the media. In the 40 Submission by the Government of Spain. 41 Submission by the government of Catalonia, Spain. 42 Submission by the Government of Morocco. 43 Submission by the Government of France. 44 Submission by the Government of Croatia. 45 Submission by the Government of Turkey. 46 Submission by the Government of New Zealand. 47 Submission by the Government of Switzerland. 48 Submission by the Government of Cyprus responding to the 2019 Femicide Watch call. 49 Submission by the Government of Ecuador. 50 Submission by the Office of the Public Defender of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. 16/22 Russian Federation, the civil society organization Femicid.net collects information from the media and disaggregates femicide cases into intimate femicides (murders committed by relatives, intimate partners and acquaintances) and others.⁵¹ 51 Media monitoring is also the strategy adopted by the civil society organization Association of Autonomous Austrian Women’s Shelters, which collects information on cases of femicides and attempted femicides committed by current or former intimate partners, family members and other cases with close victim-perpetrator relationships.⁵² In the Bolivarian State of Venezuela, despite the existence of criminal provisions on the offence of femicide, no official data has been published since 2016. Therefore, the civil society organization CEPAZ has been collecting information from news articles on femicide and producing detailed monthly reports that include information on the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, where the crime took place, the motivation, the modus operandi, the history of violence and the age, among other information.⁵³

51. Submission by Femicid.net. ↩
52. Submission by Isabel Jaider, University of Vienna. ↩
53. Submission by CEPAZ. ↩

In some countries, such as Tunisia⁵⁴ and Senegal,⁵⁵ data are systematically collected by government bodies on violence against women, but not on femicide. The Special Rapporteur encourages these Governments to make use of the structures and institutions already in place and to expand them to cover the issue of femicide as well.

54. Submission by the Government of Tunisia. ↩
55. Submission by the Government of Senegal. ↩

Although much progress has been made, many challenges remain to ensure that comprehensive, comparable data on femicide is produced and made available. One obstacle frequently pointed out in the submissions received by the Special Rapporteur is the lack in criminal legislation of a specific offence of femicide. It is important to note, however, that this should not be an impediment to the collection of data. As the Special Rapporteur pointed out in one of her previous reports (A/71/398), UNODC utilizes the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes, which is based on behavioural descriptions instead of legal codes. Femicide falls under the classification of intentional homicide, that is, unlawful death inflicted upon a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury, alongside other classification criteria. Any Government may collect information on femicides by applying those criteria and categories, regardless of the specific provisions that will be applied during judicial proceedings. Likewise, the existence of a criminal offence of femicide does not exclude the need to collect disaggregated information on the crime, including the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator.

Another issue to be noted is the restrictive definitions of femicide that are sometimes adopted in the production of data. While domestic violence, family violence and intimate-partner violence are all relevant categories for understanding the phenomenon of femicide, none of them is sufficient as a stand-alone proxy for femicide. Methodologies should also allow for the inclusion of other types of femicide, particularly those connected to hate crimes against vulnerable groups such as lesbians, transgender women and gender-diverse persons, and sex workers. The development of a common statistical framework on gender-related killings of women and girls by UNODC and UN-Women is a welcome development that should provide valuable technical guidance for Governments and other stakeholders wishing to improve their data collection practices, and should contribute to increased comparability of data. 51 Submission by Femicid.net. 52 Submission by Isabel Jaider, University of Vienna. 53 Submission by CEPAZ. 54 Submission by the Government of Tunisia. 55 Submission by the Government of Senegal.

In the past few years, a growing number of studies have shed light on the different dynamics of femicide and the specific institutional, legal, social and cultural challenges that must be addressed for its eradication. These studies go beyond the data on femicide and provide context and nuance, as well as valuable recommendations and guidance on legislative and policy measures necessary to improve prevention.

It would not be possible to summarize all of these studies in the present report; however, it is worth noting that, despite the many different social and institutional contexts analysed, these reports consistently demonstrate that women are the primary victims of intimate-partner killings; the centrality of intimate-partner femicides in heterosexual relationships among all types of femicides; and the prevalence of a prior history of violence leading up to the femicide. This is consistent with research conducted by UNODC at the global level and has significant implications for policymaking.

For instance, in Morocco, 56 per cent of femicides committed in 2019 were perpetrated by the victim’s husband, according to data from the Public Ministry.⁵⁶ Data of the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations of Peru point to 69 per cent to 76 per cent of femicides between 2018 and 2020 having been committed by a current or former intimate partner, while approximately 5 per cent of cases were family-related killings.⁵⁷ In Norway, according to a study published in 2015, prior intimate-partner violence was identified in 7 out of 10 cases of intimate-partner killings. With risk factors having been observed by the police, health-care and support services and individuals, there is considerable potential for prevention.⁵⁸ Finally, many studies make an explicit connection between femicide and patriarchal social structures, for instance by uncovering as a common motivation the woman’s desire to pursue independence from an abuser in a context of violence.⁵⁹

56. Submission by the Government of Morocco. ↩
57. Submission by Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristán. ↩
58. Submission by the Government of Norway. ↩
59. Submission by Kayan Feminist Organization. ↩

Information received by the Special Rapporteur points to different strategies regarding studies and the use of their findings in policymaking. In Argentina, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights leads initiatives to produce studies and systematize information and conducts research on judicial decisions on femicide cases. The Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity is developing a victimization survey on the prevalence of violence against women, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the context of the Spotlight Initiative. A study on risk factors in cases of violence against women led to the development of a risk assessment module in Argentina’s integrated system on cases of gender-based violence.⁶⁰

60. Submission by the Government of Argentina. ↩

Ecuador is an example of the cumulative results of a number of investigations and studies on femicide. Starting in 2010, different State institutions (including the National Council for Gender Equality, the Ecumenical Human Rights Commission, the Office of the Attorney General and the Special Commission on Security, Criminal Justice and Transparency) started producing studies and indicators on femicide. As a result of the increased visibility of violence against women brought about by these studies, as well as an increase in violence and social pressure for change, the Comprehensive Organic Law for the Prevention and Eradication of Violence against 56 Submission by the Government of Morocco. 57 Submission by Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristán. 58 Submission by the Government of Norway. 59 Submission by Kayan Feminist Organization. 60 Submission by the Government of Argentina. 18/22 Women was passed in 2018. 61 Ecuador also implemented, in November 2020, a mechanism to monitor the deadlines and terms in which judicial proceedings are carried out in the crime of femicide and violent deaths of women.⁶² 62

62. Submission by UN-Women. ↩

The analysis of femicide cases, in order to identify protection gaps and propose improvements, has been one of the key recommendations by the Special Rapporteur; some countries have put in place interesting initiatives in that regard. In France, a report by the judiciary published in 2019 reviewed 88 criminal proceedings of femicide cases and identified several patterns: prior episodes of violence in two thirds of cases, substance abuse, and unemployment of the victim or the perpetrator. Most of the femicides took place when victims separated from the perpetrator or announced their intention to do so. The report made 24 recommendations to improve the criminal justice response to these cases, many of which have already been implemented: amendments to legislation to allow for the notification of domestic violence by health-care professionals when there is a situation of immediate danger, and increased support to services for victims, among others.⁶³

63. Submission by the Public Defender of Georgia. ↩

The observatory of Seine-Saint-Denis Department in France is a good example of implementation of evidence-based policy improvements, resulting from the analysis of cases of femicide. In 2008, the observatory studied 24 cases of femicides in the area and came to important findings, such as that in half of the cases the women were killed by their spouses in the context of visitation or custody arrangements. Based on those conclusions, a number of measures were put in place, including providing telephones to victims of violence to request immediate police assistance and measures to prevent contact between women and their aggressors in the context of visitation of children.⁶⁴

64. Submission by the observatory on violence against women of Seine-Saint-Denis Department, France. ↩

The Public Defender of Georgia has been issuing femicide monitoring reports since 2016, reviewing shortcomings in the response to femicide by the criminal justice system and making recommendations. In response to these recommendations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs established a risk assessment tool and monitoring mechanism of domestic violence and violence against women. In addition to evaluating risks for lethality, the risk assessment tool also ensures that the history of violence is documented by the police. Legislation now makes it mandatory to use the risk assessment questionnaire when establishing a restrictive order and electronic supervision.⁶⁵

65. Submission by the Public Defender of Georgia. ↩

The Protector of Citizens of Serbia has been active in monitoring and identifying shortcomings in the protection of women from violence and femicide. Two special reports were issued in 2014 and 2015, identifying problems such as the lack of integrated records and data on cases of violence; a lack of adequate response to violence by first responding officers; delays in implementation of measures to sanction perpetrators; and high attrition rates in the number of reported cases that lead to indictments. Following additional recommendations made by the Protector of Citizens in 2016 and 2018, the Government initiated a series of measures, including providing training related to domestic violence and guidelines on standards of professional work for staff delivering social services.⁶⁶

66. Submission by the Protector of Citizens of Serbia. ↩

Other branches of Government may also play an important role in promoting such studies. The above-mentioned investigative commission on femicide of the Legislative Assembly of the Plurinational State of Bolivia reviewed the justice system’s response and shortcomings in dealing with femicide cases, having identified problems including delayed access to justice and negligent and unethical behaviour on the part of administrators and criminal justice system officials. Their findings were shared with the Council of Justice, to implement corrective measures.⁶⁷

67. Submissions by the Government of Switzerland, the Government of New Zealand and the Office of the Public Defender of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. ↩

It should also be noted that international organizations have been playing a key role in supporting local capacities to conduct in-depth studies on femicide, especially in the context of the Spotlight Initiative. The findings of these studies provide meaningful insights for Governments seeking to improve legislation and policymaking to prevent and combat femicide. UN-Women has collaborated with the Government of Mexico to produce a series of research studies and publications on femicide; it worked with civil society organizations in Serbia and Turkey to review social and institutional responses to femicide cases; and it is supporting the conceptual development and cost estimation of an early warning system for femicide cases in Ecuador. UN-Women will also conduct a regional study on femicide through its office for the Americas and the Caribbean using big data analysis tools, mainly through Internet, social media and other digital sources.⁶⁸ Likewise, UNFPA has also promoted research on the interrelation between sexual violence and the death of girls in Latin American and the Caribbean; among its findings, the study points to increasing rates of femicide, as well as the viciousness of the killings in the region. UNDP has led a study on the response of the judicial system to cases of femicide/feminicide through its regional programme for Latin America and has conducted analysis of sentences and judicial proceedings on femicide cases, resulting in the identification of the best interpretations of the national regulations on femicide.⁶⁹

68. Submission by UN-Women. ↩
69. Submission by UNFPA. ↩

While not all studies and investigations may lead to immediate recommendations and policy changes, they provide key elements for the social understanding of femicide, for raising awareness among policymakers and society in general on the main challenges and making sense of the data collected. It is crucial that Governments, legislators, members of the judiciary and of independent State bodies for equality and other stakeholders support the realization of these studies and take their findings into account when deciding on measures to tackle femicide.

As the Special Rapporteur argued in her previous report on the issue of femicide or gender-related killings of women and girls (A/71/398), the obligation of States to prevent and combat violence against women, whether perpetrated by State or non-State actors or private persons, is well established in international human rights law. The due diligence obligation to have legal provisions and a system in place to address gender-based violence against women committed by private actors evidently includes femicides or gender-related killings of women, the most extreme form of violence against women and the most violent manifestation of discrimination against women. Data from all regions of the world consistently show that more than 80 per cent of victims of intimate-partner homicides are women. For many women victims of intimate-partner and domestic violence, the home is the most dangerous place; however, this violence is preventable.

The Special Rapporteur would like to recall that collecting and disseminating data is not an end in itself, but a powerful tool to assess the level of gender-based violence against women and improve legislation and policy responses to violence against women. When duly taken into consideration, the trends exposed by data may inform better responses, tailored to national and local contexts, and increase capacity to prevent the escalation of violence into femicides.

As presented by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in its general recommendation No. 35 (2017), updating general recommendation No. 19 (1992), which was developed in collaboration with the Special Rapporteur, the due diligence obligation to prevent, prosecute and punish violence against women includes the implementation of measures to monitor and collect data on violence, including on femicide or gender-related killings of women and girls. This data should be disaggregated and include information on the type of relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, which is not yet the case in the majority of States.

Comparable data on femicide or gender-related killings of women and girls should be an integral part of the data on violence against women collected and published by States each year.

In her previous report, of 2016, the Special Rapporteur presented a framework and methodological guidelines for putting in place an evidence-based strategy to prevent femicide. As the present report, in 2021, demonstrates, while much progress has been made in establishing violence against women observatories, or femicide watch bodies, dedicated to the issue of femicide or gender-related killings of women, the progress has been uneven. While some countries and regions have put significant resources into setting up their femicide watches, in others there is very little progress, if any. Likewise, considerably more data are being collected and disseminated, but these data are not yet comparable as in many cases the modalities proposed by the Special Rapporteur are not observed. States do not include information on the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator in their homicide data. It is also problematic that, in some countries, data on femicide or gender-related killings of women and girls are limited only to intimate-partner violence. A comprehensive approach should include all types of femicide relevant to a particular context, including intimate-partner and family-related killings and others in which, while there is no relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, there is a gender motive.

The Special Rapporteur would like to reiterate that the existence of criminal law provisions establishing the crime of femicide (as a stand-alone offence or as an aggravating circumstance to homicide) is not a prerequisite for the collection of data, which can be disaggregated from homicide data under specific categories. Furthermore, when such legal definitions of femicide as a specific crime are in place, often only prosecuted cases are counted; in those States, data collection should be broader and encompass all gender-related killings of women.

The Special Rapporteur very much welcomed information on the analysis of cases and studies on femicide that has been carried out and that has already resulted in changes of laws and practice at the national level based on the analysis of femicide cases from a human rights perspective. Such analyses, findings and recommendations should be incorporated into decision-making processes, both in terms of legislative reforms as well as judicial and government measures to prevent femicides or gender-related killings of women and girls, and to protect victims before violence escalates further, including violence towards children. It is also important that these recommendations are widely disseminated to raise awareness on the issue and influence decision makers.

Finally, the Special Rapporteur would like to recall that Governments, national human rights institutions, legislators and civil society organizations may play complementary roles in these efforts. Femicide watches or observatories installed by any of these stakeholders may fulfil some or all of the roles laid out by the Special Rapporteur; it is critically important, however, that these different functions are carried out, and that States promote coordination between existing initiatives and bear the primary responsibility for the collection of comparable femicide data and the prevention of femicides or gender-related killings of women and girls.

The Special Rapporteur reiterates the recommendations from her previous report on femicide (A/71/398), and makes the following recommendations.

States should establish a femicide watch or observatory on violence against women, if one has not yet been created, and collect and publish each year comparable data on femicide or gender-related killings of women as part of data on violence against women, as well as recommendations for changes in policy or law for their prevention based on the analysis of such cases.

States should promote collaboration with civil society organizations, national human rights institutions, academia and all other entities collecting data and producing information on femicide.

States should widely disseminate data and information or analyses produced by femicide watches or observatories, particularly among legislators, government officials, judicial system officials, civil society organizations and other stakeholders.

States should gather data on gender-based violence and femicide or genderrelated killings of women during the COVID-19 pandemic and conduct a comparison between femicide data collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. United Nations system

United Nations agencies should continue and expand their support to States in the setting up of information systems on femicide or gender-related killings of women, femicide prevention watches or observatories and analysis of cases with recommendations for their prevention. In particular, UN-Women and UNODC, with the support of OHCHR and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and the EDVAW Platform, should continue their work in developing a statistical framework on gender-related killings of women, which could support the collection of comparable data across countries and regions with harmonized methodologies. As a second step, they should focus on prevention and the establishment of national preventive bodies to conduct analysis of cases and recommend prevention strategies for incorporation into laws, policies and practice.

States and United Nations bodies (including the Human Rights Council, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, UN-Women, OHCHR and UNODC) should strongly support and collaborate with the EDVAW Platform mechanisms and provide institutional and financial support for the activities of the Platform in order to allow for its continuation and sustainability. States should include the Platform mechanisms in all United Nations and regional conferences or relevant meetings on women’s human rights and the elimination of gender-based violence against women.

The Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the Human Rights Council should promote the participation and integration of all EDVAW Platform mechanisms in their respective work, including by holding an annual interactive dialogue with them on the elimination of discrimination and gender-based violence against women.