Preventing and eliminating this widespread and ongoing pandemic is an urgent goal of the Decade of Action to achieve substantive gender equality and the care society in Latin America and the Caribbean, the United Nations regional organization indicates.

In 2024, at least 3,828 women were victims of femicide, feminicide or gender-related killings[1] in 26 of the region’s countries and territories (3,814 in 17 Latin American countries and 14 victims in 9 Caribbean countries and territories), according to the latest official data reported to the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean (GEO) of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). This represents, at a minimum, 11 gender-related killings of women each day and an accumulated total of at least 19,254 femicides in the last five years in the region.

The Bulletin No. 4 – Femicidal Violence in Figures. Towards substantive gender equality and the care society: Acting with urgency to ensure women’s and girls’ right to a life free from violence, released today by the Observatory, is part of the UNiTE to End Violence against Women Campaign being led by the United Nations Secretary-General, the theme of which this year is to “End digital violence against all women and girls.” 

In the Bulletin – published on the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which is commemorated each year on November 25 and marks the start of 16 days of activism – ECLAC clarifies that it is not possible to make regional comparisons since each year, a different number of countries reports official information. However, the monitoring of national data over time clearly shows that “femicidal violence persists in the region, affecting the lives of thousands of women and girls, impacting communities and limiting development, equality and peace in our countries.”

Of the 17 Latin American countries with information available on femicides (or feminicides) in 2024, 12 had a rate equal to or higher than 1 victim for every 100,000 women. The highest rates are seen in Honduras (4.3 cases per 100,000 women), Guatemala (1.9 cases per 100,000 women) and the Dominican Republic (1.5 cases per 100,000 women), followed by Puerto Rico, Cuba and Bolivia (all with a rate of 1.4 cases per 100,000 women). Chile had the lowest rate at 0.4 cases per 100,000 women.

In the Caribbean, of the 9 countries that reported to ECLAC, only Suriname, Jamaica, Barbados, Belize, Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines registered cases in 2024.

In the region, the majority of these murders are perpetrated by the victims’ current or former intimate partners.

“We continue to see unacceptable levels of gender-based violence against women and girls in Latin America and the Caribbean, including its most extreme manifestation: femicide. Femicidal violence persists as a serious and widespread violation of the human rights of women and girls in the region. The prevention and elimination of femicide is not just a matter of public security, it is an urgent goal of the Decade of Action to achieve substantive gender equality and the care society,” said José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, referring to the agreement established in the Tlatelolco Commitment, approved in August at the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexico.

The 2024 data shows that femicide is the most extreme manifestation of a continuum of violence that affects women in all areas of their lives. In 2024, 14 countries registered 5,502 attempted femicides, which reveals the progression of violent conduct that can culminate in murder, and confirms the importance of strengthening warning systems, assessing the risk of lethal violence and providing timely institutional responses to prevent all forms of femicidal violence. Strengthening access to justice and improving institutional responses is essential to prevent gender-based violence. The persistence of these crimes in the region demands timely responses and that we accelerate needed transformations with a sense of urgency, ECLAC contends.

According to information provided in 2024 by 8 countries and territories (Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and Uruguay), the greatest incidence of femicides is concentrated in the group of women aged 30 to 44 (29.2%), followed by the group of adolescents and young women between 15 and 29 years of age (28%). However, femicidal violence poses a threat to women of all ages. In 2024, those same countries reported 78 cases of femicides committed against girls under 14 years of age, and 89 cases affecting women over 60. 

In addition, 587 indirect victims of femicide were registered in 2024 in the 10 countries that provide that information. This refers to the femicide victims’ children and other dependents.

Regarding the 2025 theme of the UNiTE Campaign, ECLAC notes that the region has made regulatory advances to address digital violence against women and girls, which includes a broad spectrum of behavior ranging from cyber-bullying, the unauthorized disclosure of intimate images and illegal access to personal information to the violence and political harassment that particularly affects women in public positions and leadership roles, including human rights defenders, journalists and activists.

Today, all the countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean have laws to prevent and eradicate violence against women – mainly in the family sphere – while 14 countries have gone further and adopted comprehensive laws enabling them to address gender-based violence against women and girls in the various realms in which they occur.

In Latin America, 20 countries have incorporated the crime of femicide, feminicide or gender-related killings of women into their legal orders. In some cases, it has been classified as a specific crime (Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela). In others – like Argentina, Cuba and Puerto Rico – it has been incorporated as an aggravating circumstance for homicide.

Separately, 16 countries and territories have made progress on legislative measures to eliminate the harmful practice of child marriage (Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad and Tobago). 

Finally, ECLAC urges for making progress in at least three areas in order to fulfill regional and international commitments, achieve substantive equality, and guarantee the right of women, adolescents and girls to a life free of violence and discrimination: regulatory framework, institutional structure, participation and strengthening of state capabilities; financing and cooperation; and systems for information, communications, technology, monitoring, evaluation and accountability.

The Decade of Action established in the Tlatelolco Commitment requires urgent, comprehensive, intersectoral and funded policies that address the continuum of violence – including sexual violence and violence in the digital arena as well as harmful practices such as child marriage – and that can reduce lethal risk. The complementary pillars of legislating and rigorously implementing, providing effective protection and reparation, transforming regulations and using quality measurements can help guarantee the right of women and girls to a violence-free life and build the care society in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Bulletin underscores.

[1] These different expressions correspond to the distinct legal terms used for this crime in the region’s countries.