Peru reaches record number in femicides in a decade: these are the rates of femicides in Latin America in 2019

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(CNN Spanish) - Peru broke records in numbers of femicides in 2019: between January and December 2019, 168 cases of femicides were recorded, as reported by Eliana Revollar, attached for the rights of Women of the Ombudsman of Peru, cited by Peru's state news agency, Andina.

The 2019 figure corresponds to 19 more cases than the previous year when 149 victims were registered, according to the report of the National Program Against Family and Sexual Violence, of the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations of Peru.

This is the highest figure in the last ten years, according to that record. 2009 was the year with the most homicides “with characteristics of feminicide”, with 139 cases.

As Revollar told Andina, "85% of cases of femicide have occurred in a context of couples, cohabitation, lovers, boyfriends, ex-lovers or ex-husbands."

Although this year the country broke records of femicides - which is when a woman is murdered for being a woman -, the UN said in November that the country had one of the lowest figures in the region of this crime in 2018 with a rate of 0.8 femicides per 100,000 women.

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The trend in other countries is also rising, according to the most recent figures published in each country.

Mexico, for example, closed the year with historical figures regarding the number of femicides. From January to November 2019, the government counted 916 victims of this crime throughout the country. The National Public Security System reported that in the last four years the crimes of femicide doubled from 411 in 2015 to 916 between January and November 2019.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, femicides increased by 4% in 2018, according to a study published in September this year by the Brazilian Public Security Forum. In this country of 200 million people, 1,206 victims of femicide were registered. 88.8% of the cases were perpetrated by a partner or ex-partner.

In Argentina, between January 1 and November 30, 2019, 297 femicides were registered, according to the Observatory “Now That Yes They See Us”. Of these, 63% occurred in the victim's home, 27% on public roads and 4% in the aggressor's house, according to data published by the observatory on November 25, when the International Day for Elimination was celebrated of Violence against Women.

According to the most recent figures from the Ombudsman's Office, between January 1 and October 31, 2019, 229 cases of femicide were recorded.

Countries with the highest rates of femicides

In Latin America and the Caribbean, 3,529 women were murdered in 2018 for gender reasons in 25 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Observatory of Gender Equality of Latin America and the Caribbean (OIG) of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The report published in November 2019 by ECLAC measures the homicide rates per 100,000 people.

In the region, the highest rates of feminicide per 100,000 women are in El Salvador (6.8), Honduras (5.1), Bolivia (2.3), Guatemala (2.0) and Dominican Republic (1.9 ), according to ECLAC.

In 2018, in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados led the list with a feminicide rate of 3.4 per 100,000 women. The figure may be higher in Barbados, according to ECLAC, because in that country it only collects the figures of “intimate” feminicides, that is, those committed by the intimate partner or ex-partner of the victims, says the report.

According to the UN, violence against girls and women "is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating violations of human rights in today's world." The violence - which manifests itself in a physical, sexual and psychological way - "is hardly reported due to the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators, and the silence, stigmatization and shame suffered by the victims."

Although all women, anywhere in the world can suffer gender violence, the most vulnerable are “older girls and women, women who identify as lesbians, bisexuals, transgender or intersex, migrants and refugees, those of indigenous peoples or ethnic minorities, or women and girls living with HIV and disabilities, and those in humanitarian crises. ”

In the world, one in three women has suffered some type of violence (physical or sexual), mainly by a partner, according to the UN.

Feminicides Peru