Latin America is known globally for high rankings in homicide rates. Our region leads in the murder of nature defenders, many of them indigenous, black youth, and now in the number of femicides, spreading to a scale unheard of in other regions. Far from being a novel phenomenon, femicide has been unveiled thanks to intense feminist activism at work since the 1980s that contested long-lasting and deeply rooted seals of patriarchy and new legislations adopted in the 2000s under this ongoing political pressure.
Brazil runs high in the pack. Strangely, however, femicide is escalating whereas the number of overall homicides has slightly decreased over the last two years. In 2019, 1,310 women were killed, according to the Brazilian Forum of Public Security a 7.2% increase vis à vis 2018, when 1,222 cases were reported and typified as femicide. Data released by Brazil’s Ministry of Justice for January-August 2019 alone report 3,257 female murders. Defining a crime as femicide remains technically contentious, making it difficult to accurately characterize widespread forms of domestic and gender violence that reap women’s lives.
An article recently published by The Guardian informs that, in the UK, despite more than 50 years of feminist campaigning against male violence, the number of women and girls dying at the hands of men is also hiking. Although the magnitude of femicide rates in Brazil and in the UK are not comparable, in the UK, as it also happens in Brazil, women are most often assassinated with sharp instruments and as a quasi-general rule by a partner or ex. Killers are usually someone who is very close to the victim and whose primary and senseless motive is to rebuffing a “no”, “not anymore”.
