Over 19,000 Women Killed in Five Years Across the Region

A United Nations report shows the alarming scale of violence against women in Latin America and the Caribbean, with at least 19,254 women killed over the past five years.

According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 3,828 women lost their lives in 2024 alone. That means about 11 women were killed every day. The report noted that most of these murders were committed by current or former partners.

The highest rates were recorded in Honduras, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, while Chile reported the lowest. 

In Belize, the Crime Observatory reported 9 femicides in 2024. And just this Monday morning, on the eve of the global 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence, police responded to a brutal domestic attack in which a Coast Guard officer allegedly stabbed a woman multiple times, leaving her hospitalised.

ECLAC’s Executive Secretary José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs called the numbers “unacceptable levels of gender-based violence” and urged governments to act with urgency. He stressed that femicide is not only a crime problem but a human rights crisis that blocks progress and equality across the region.

While most countries in the region now have laws against gender-based violence, the UN warns that enforcement remains uneven.