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Femicide: A Gender-Based Crime Terrorizing Women’s Safety


Honduras is a Latin American country nicknamed the most unsafe place on earth for women. It obtained its nickname because many femicide cases occurred there. In Honduras, at least one woman is murdered every sixteen hours. According to the UN, this country has the highest femicide rate in the world. Even worse, 95% of femicide cases in Honduras were never investigated in 2014.


Well, what is femicide? Femicide is a sex-based crime that is widely defined as women murder because of their gender identity. It is the culmination of violence against women, which ends in losing women’s lives.


According to CNN Indonesia (30/07), there have been 14,719 cases of violence against women in Indonesia. This number comes from:

  • 5,548 cases of physical violence,

  • 2,123 cases of psychological violence,

  • 4,898 cases of sexual violence,

  • 1,528 cases of economic violence, and

  • 610 cases of violence against migrant workers and trafficking.


Komnas Perempuan has discovered the patterns behind femicide. Most femicide cases occur due to sexual violence, male offense, jealousy, secret marriages, avoiding responsibility for getting a woman pregnant, undercover prostitution with minimal monitoring, and violence in courtship. The lack of protection for the victims and the firm patriarchal power between the victims and the perpetrators also influence femicide. In addition, femicide perpetrators are often the victims’ closest people, starting from boyfriends, dates, husbands, customers, and others.


In response to the number of femicide cases in Indonesia, Komnas Perempuan issued a statement and appeal in 2017, which contains:

  1. POLRI must be fully alert to safeguard and ensure the safety of the informant or woman whose life is threatened;
  2. Media to avoid the victimization of victims by maintaining the sufferers and their families’ integrity;
  3. Communities, including extended families, workplaces, organizations, and educational institutions, to become parts of the community-based prevention and protection;
  4. Government call for the severe data collection of femicide as a reference to take actions for prevention and handling.


Every woman has the potential to become a victim of femicide, which means anyone can experience it. It is indeed worrying, and everyone needs to pay attention to this. Protection for women, especially victims of violence, needs to be intensified so that similar things will not happen again. The government and the apparatus also need to take firm actions against the perpetrators of femicide to discourage them. Hopefully, the government could pass laws concerning violence against women, including femicide.


Writer: Redita Diah Firanti (EDSAPRESS)

Editor: Wahyuningtyas

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