By The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean - ECLAC

This Bulletin No. 4 on feminicidal violence presents the official statistics submitted by the region’s governments to the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean on femicides, feminicides and gender-related killings of women reported in 2024. It is part of the UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, aimed at preventing and eliminating gender-based violence against women and girls worldwide. The campaign calls on governments, civil society, women’s organizations, young people, the private sector, the media and the entire United Nations system to join forces to tackle the global pandemic of violence against women and girls. The slogan for 2025 is “End digital violence against all women and girls”.3 Within this framework, it is important to highlight progress in the region in addressing online violence against women and girls, which is defined as “any act of gender-based violence against women that is committed, assisted or aggravated in part or fully by the use of information and communications technologies, ... against a woman because she is a woman, or affects women disproportionately” (United Nations, 2018).4 It is expressed in various forms and hampers women’s full autonomy and participation in society. Some groups of women are more vulnerable owing to their activities, identity or participation in the public sphere. Gender-based online violence includes a broad spectrum of behaviours, from cyberbullying, the unauthorized disclosure of intimate images and illegal access to personal information, to political violence and harassment targeting, in particular, women in leadership roles and public office (such as human rights defenders, journalists and activists) (ECLAC, 2023). Some legislative measures adopted in recent years reflect these advances. Brazil has passed a law on the responsibility of its federal police to investigate cybercrime (2019). In Ecuador, the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code was amended in 2021 to criminalize online harassment and unauthorized dissemination of sexual or intimate images and to establish specific penalties for such acts. This regulatory framework also addresses sexual crimes perpetrated against children and adolescents on digital platforms, including online grooming. In Mexico, Olimpia’s Law of 2021, which established a set of reforms to the General Act on Women’s Access to a Violence-free Life and the Federal Criminal Code, recognizes online violence and penalties for crimes that violate people’s sexual privacy online. To date, 29 federal entities in Mexico have adopted regulations under this framework. In 2023, that country also passed the Ingrid Act, which establishes penalties for public servants who disclose images of victims and survivors of violence, with a view to protecting the dignity and integrity of these victims and survivors. This law also included an amendment to the Criminal Code to broaden the penalties for corruption and harassment of minors through electronic media. In 2020, Guatemala issued decrees against school bullying, while in Nicaragua, the Special Act on Cybercrime was adopted, which establishes specific penalties for crimes committed in the digital environment.Online gender-based violence against women is linked to other forms of violence and to the most extreme expression of gender-based violence, feminicide (the subject of this Bulletin), as it often reflects a continuum of discrimination and violence that begins online and leads to violence offline and vice versa. It also includes the use of technology itself to carry out violent acts against women and girls (for example, to locate victims or control their lives). Often, the different forms of online violence are an extension of coercive control and allow an acceleration in the progression of riskin abusive relationships, with technology and digital spaces allowing violence to continue even when perpetrators are not in physical proximity to survivors (United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA], 2021). A survey conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) notes the high levels of online violence against women journalists, with 20% of women respondents in that sector saying that they had been attacked or abused offline in connection with online violence they had experienced. As a direct result, 13% of journalists surveyed had increased their physical security in responseto  online violence (Posetti et al, 2020). Similarly, a case study carried out by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the region (Ibero-American General Secretariat, United Nations Development Programme and the Ibero-American Initiative to Prevent and Eliminate Violence Against Women, 2025) refers to groups of women who are particularly vulnerable to online violence owing to their participation in the public sphere. Violence occurs in different phases based on its intensity. It generally begins with constant harassment, then worsens with insults, disinformation and dissemination of false information, disclosure of personal data, threats and, lastly, verbal and physical violence. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) underscores that online violence has a real impact online and offline, can worsen forms of violence, such as sexual harassment, and must be factored into risk assessment and protection plans (Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention [MESECVI], 2024