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International Women’s
Day on Sunday celebrates
the social, political and
economic gains of women,
yet finding a way to effec-
tively stem, if not end, gen-
der-based killings remains a
challenge in many parts of
the world.
A gruesome case in
Mexico last month, in which
a man disemboweled his
wife and skinned her corpse,
generated outrage about
how authorities respond to
such killings. Activists have
called for a national wom-
en’s strike Monday — skip-
ping work or school and not
purchasing anything for a
day — in part to focus atten-
tion on what they perceive
as a crisis of violence.
Activists are particularly
enraged about a rise in
femicide, a term used to
describe certain kinds of
homicides targeting wom-
en. Amid the outcry, Mexi-
can lawmakers have pro-
posed a reform that would
increase the maximum
prison sentence for anyone
found guilty of femicide
from 60 to 65 years, but the
move, according to several
legal analysts, at best would
be symbolic.
“Increased penalties
have never proven to deter
crime,” said Cristina Reyes
Ortiz, senior attorney and
gender specialist at the
nonprofit Mexico United
Against Crime.
Here is a look at some of
the issues and statistics
related to gender-based
violence against women.What is femicide?
Merriam-Webster de-
fines femicide as the gender-
based slaying of a woman or
girl by a man. In practice,
there are various interpreta-
tions of what the term
means, including some
jurisdictions that restrict its
use to cases in which the
perpetrators are intimate
partners or family mem-
bers. Some law enforcement
systems do not use the term
as a specific category for
homicides.What are some of the stat-
istics related to the killings
of women worldwide?
According to the United
Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime, the last available
data show that 87,000 wom-
en were intentionally killed
worldwide in 2017. Of those
killings, the agency identi-
fied 50,000 as femicides.
For country-specific
data, the agency refers to a
Global Burden of Armed
Violence report released in
2015, which lists the 25 coun-
tries with the highest rates
of female homicides.
El Salvador topped the
list with a rate of 14.4 homi-
cides per 100,000 women.
Mexico was 23rd on the list,with a rate of about 3.3. The
Philippines, with a rate of
about 3.1, was 25th. The
United States was not in-
cluded.What kinds of efforts exist
to track the slayings of
women and girls?
In its report, the U.N.
acknowledges that men
make up the bulk of global
homicide victims, estimat-
ing that they represented
81% of the 464,000 deaths
documented in 2017. But a
general increase in violence,
the agency added,also
affects women and girls of
all nations, who are subject
to different forms of violence
because of their gender.
The agency limits its
femicide count to cases
involving intimate partners
and family members, recog-
nizing that doing so renders
an incomplete picture of the
problem. The report
laments the “severe limita-
tions in terms of data avail-
ability” that prevent it from
tracking other types of
gender-based violence, such
as female infanticide; the
killing of indigenous women
and sex workers; and dowry
and honor killings.
The U.N. says its report
is based on information
supplied by national stat-
istical systems in which the
relationship between the
victim and perpetrator is
reported. This framework
covers most gender-related
killings of women, signaling
that the majority of femi-
cides occur at the hands of
intimate partners and fam-
ily members, the agency
said.
It excludes victims such
as 7-year-old Fátima Cecilia
Aldrighetti, who was alleg-
edly abducted by a woman
after being dismissed from
school last month in Mexico
City. After her body was
found in a bag just blocks
away from her home, an
autopsy revealed that she’d
been beaten and sexually
abused. A woman and a
man not related to her havebeen charged in connection
with Fátima’s death.
Likewise, a focus on
cases in which perpetrators
are intimate partners or
family members leaves out
Ruth George, a student in
Chicago who was sexually
assaulted and killed after
ignoring a catcaller in
November.
In the United States, the
Violence Policy Center
publishes an annual report
on female homicide victims
based on FBI data. Like the
U.N., that report focuses on
cases involving family mem-
bers and intimate partners.What are some of the differ-
ences among nations with
femicide laws?
In 2007, Costa Rica be-
came one of the first nations
to pass anti-femicide legis-
lation, making the crime
punishable by up to 35 years
in prison. This law, which
focuses on married couples,
also asks authorities to
consider whether the victim
had sensory, physical or
mental disabilities; was
pregnant or had recently
given birth; or was more
than 65 years old.
Peru, which put femicide
on the books by amending
its penal code in 2011, made
the crime punishable by 15
to 25 years and also focuses
on intimate partners and
family members.
Mexico listed femicide as
a penal category in 2012.
In addition to determin-
ing whether there was an
“emotional or close relation-
ship” between the victim
and the suspect, it considers
whether the victim was ever
subject to threats, harass-
ment or sexual violence;
whether the victim suffered
bodily harm or mutilation
before or after being killed;
and whether the body was
put on display, among other
factors. Additionally, public
servants found to delay or
obstruct investigations
into the killings are subject
to three to eight years in
prison.What is the trend in
gender-based violence
in Mexico?
In 2019, Mexico recorded
35,558 homicides, of which
3,825 were female victims.
Officials classified 1,006 of
those killings as femicides.
Officials recently issued a
statement signaling that
femicides were up 137.5%
since 2015.
In an effort to address
violence, corruption and
impunity, President Andrés
Manuel López Obrador’s
administration is working
on a National Penal Code to
standardize crime descrip-
tions across its 32 states.
Early this year, Atty. Gen.
Alejandro Gertz Manero
pitched the idea of eliminat-
ing femicide as a penal
category, but several mem-
bers of Congress immedi-
ately denounced the move,
as did Mexico’s National
Institute for Women.
According to the insti-
tute, eliminating the exist-
ing femicide category would
represent a severe “setback
in matters of securing jus-
tice for women and girls.” It
also emphasized that “the
definition of femicide in
Mexico is the product of a
social and legal battle
[waged by] the feminist
movement, civil society
organizations and relatives
of murdered women for the
recognition of one of the
most extreme manifesta-
tions of violence against
women.”
Last month, Secretary of
the Interior Olga Sánchez
Cordero met with feminist
scholars, lawmakers and
civil society groups and said
that the federal government
would move to address
gender-based violence
holistically. For instance,
given that some authorities
wait 72 hours before looking
for a missing person, they
would be instructed to start
searching immediately after
a woman or girl was re-
ported missing, she said.
Sánchez Cordero ac-
knowledged the “legitimate
demands of different femi-
nist movements,” along
with the government’s
responsibility to take on
femicide.
“We recognize that we’ve
come late with this mes-
sage,” she said.Times staff writer Kate
Linthicum in Mexico City
contributed to this report.BACK STORY
A call for action in Mexico
Behind women’s strike is a renewed focus on gender-based violence
By Julia BarajasIN PREPARATIONfor International Women’s Day
on Sunday, students at the Jesuit University of Gua-
dalajara rallied this week against gender violence.Ulises RuizAFP/Getty ImagesMexican officials
recently issued
a statement
signaling that
femicides were
up 137.5% since