At least 4,473 women were victims of femicide in Latin America during 2021, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) reported Friday, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
The figure represents an average of 12 violent gender-related deaths of women per day in the region, according to a report by ECLAC’s Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean (OIG).
“Feminicide or femicide persists as a reality and there are no clear signs that the phenomenon is on the decline,” the report says.
In 2021, the highest rates of femicide in Latin America were recorded in Honduras (4.6 cases per 100,000 women), Dominican Republic (2.7 cases), El Salvador (2.4), Bolivia (1.8) and Brazil (1.7).
In the Caribbean, Belize and Guyana have the highest rates, 3.5 and 2.0 per 100,000 women, respectively.
The figures “are unacceptable,” says José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, quoted in the text.
Adolescents and young women between 15 and 29 years of age make up the age group in which the highest proportion of cases of femicide or feminicide are concentrated.
“Gender-based violence against women and girls takes place systematically and persistently in the region; it knows no borders, affects women and girls of all ages and occurs in all spaces, from the domestic sphere to public spaces,” warns the ECLAC report.
