The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) meeting in Santiago, Chile, has expressed deep concern about what it regards as the increasing number of femicides in the region, urging governments to give priority to public policies aimed at preventing and eradicating all forms of violence against women. In a new report, released last Thursday, 15 November 2018, ECLAC said that at least 2,795 women were victims of femicide in 23 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2017.
ECLAC said its Gender Equality Observatory (GEO) reports annually on the number of homicides of women 15 years and older perpetrated for gender-related reasons in regional countries.
ECLAC said the list of the number of femicides is led by Brazil (with 1,133 victims confirmed in 2017).
“Nonetheless, if the rate per every 100,000 women is compared, the phenomenon has a scope in El Salvador that is seen nowhere else in the region: 10.2 femicides for every 100,000 women,” ECLAC said.
In 2016, Honduras recorded 5.8 femicides for every 100,000 women, while in Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia, the commission said high rates were also seen in 2017, equal to or above two cases for every 100,000 women. In the region, only Panama, Peru and Venezuela have rates below 1.0, ECLAC said.
In the Caribbean, GEO report says four countries accounted for a total of 35 femicide victims in 2017: Belize (nine victims), the British Virgin Islands (one), St Lucia (four) and Trinidad and Tobago (21).
In the same year, the report says Guyana and Jamaica — which only have data on intimate femicides — reported the deaths of 34 and 15 women, respectively, at the hands of their current or former partners.
In 2017, the report says the rates of intimate femicides in Latin America ranged between a maximum of 1.98 for every 100,000 women in the Dominican Republic, to a minimum of 0.47 in Chile.
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Jamaica Observer
20 November 2018
