Femicide and Gender-Based Violence: A Global Crisis. What We Can Learn From Italy and South Africa

Author: Danielle Castano, MA

April 16, 2026

Introduction

Violence against women and girls, femicide, is a pervasive issue that affects all countries around the world. Femicide is defined as the intentional killing of women and girls with a gender-related motivation, usually perpetrated by an intimate partner or relative. It is considered the most extreme form of gender-based violence (GBV). It can also include the killing of girls and women in the name of honor, targeted killing of women and girls in the context of armed conflict, and female infanticide. Despite the term ‘femicide’ being officially introduced in the 1970s by feminist sociologist Diana Russell during the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women, violence against women has existed for centuries. Globally, in 2024, a woman was intentionally killed by a family member or a partner every ten minutes. This is a crisis that affects all countries. The continents with the highest femicide rates are Africa, Oceania, and the Americas (UN Women, 2025). Furthermore, the rate of femicide is likely underreported, and many countries do not have laws that specifically address femicide (Elefante and Wang, 2025). As of 2025, 29 countries around the world have enacted laws that address femicide. Approximately 450 million women live in these countries, leaving the majority of the global female population unprotected (Elefante and Wang, 2025). This article explores two countries, Italy and South Africa, that are taking measures against femicide and GBV. 

Italy

Femicide is often driven by unequal power relations, harmful gender stereotypes, and discrimination against women and girls (UN Women, 2025). As a result, it is important to examine gender equality in each country to better understand the prevalence of femicide and GBV. Italy ranked 12th in the European Union (EU) on the Gender Equality Index. The research for the Index found that Italian women with a partner earn on average 53% of their partner’s earnings, whereas Italian men living with a partner earn 112% more than their partner. This makes it the widest wage difference in the EU (European Institute for Gender Equality, 2025). Furthermore, they also found that the full-time employment rate for women is 33%, compared to 53% for men. This makes Italy the country with the widest gender employment gap among couples with children in the EU (European Institute for Gender Equality, 2025). In 2022, 44,669 Italian women left their jobs due to the difficulty of balancing working and family life (Merlino, 2024). Despite these figures, gender equality has improved over time in the country. Honor killings were seen as legitimate in Italy until 1981. In 1996, rape became considered a crime against the person and no longer a crime against public morality (Merlino, 2024). These statistics and the past history help paint a better understanding of the patriarchal society that Italian women live in, which causes femicide and GBV to become so prevalent. 

In 2024, Italy recorded 106 femicides, 62 of which were committed by a partner or former partner (Hale, 2025). A study conducted by Gabrielli et al. (2024) found that 94.3% of Italian victims were more likely to be hit by their current or former partner or by a family member. In 97% of cases, the perpetrator was a man. Their findings also showed that 83% of homicides of women were femicides (Gabrielli et al., 2024). These figures were counted as homicides in the Italian judicial system since there are no laws in place that recognize femicide. Non Una Di Meno (meaning Not One More) is a national feminist, trans-feminist, and anti-fascist movement that fights against all forms of gender violence and against all forms of patriarchy. The organization is inspired by the Ni Una Menos in Argentina after the murder of Chiara Páez. Non Una Di Meno also maintains a database of femicides that media organizations use (Hill, 2025). While Italy has discussed creating a law on femicide in the past, the final push wasn’t until the murder of several women and girls, which triggered nationwide protests across the country. The brutal murder of Giuila Cecchettin by her ex-boyfriend in 2023 sparked protests across various cities in Italy. It prompted the Italian government to draft legislation to combat GBV (Hill, 2025). In April 2025, the murder of two 22-year-old women once again sparked protests and student vigils in several cities. A month later, demonstrations erupted in Naples after a 14-year-old girl was murdered for rejecting the advances of an older boy (CIVICUS, 2025). While not all femicides gather similar media attention, Non Una Di Meno and other feminist organizations have organized vigils and protests for lesser-known murders that occur in the country (Hill, 2025). The outrage and pressure from these movements prompted the Italian government to finally act. 

Non Una Di Meno protest. [Image credit: Dinamopress]

On November 25th, 2025, Italy’s parliament unanimously approved Law No. 181/2025 that introduces femicide into the country's criminal law with a punishment of life imprisonment. The law also includes stronger measures against stalking and revenge porn. Italy has become the fourth country in the EU to codify femicide as a crime (CIVICUS, 2025). The law was introduced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and the country will now record every murder of a woman motivated by her gender as femicide. Prime Minister Meloni was a part of an expert commission that examined the murders of 211 women. The commission was looking for similar characteristics that could then be addressed when they drafted the law (Rainsford, 2025). The administration has passed other laws aiming to protect women, including extra funding to domestic violence shelters, promoting an emergency hotline, and implementing innovative education and awareness-raising activities (Hale, 2025). While the laws are a step in the right direction, organizations like Non Una di Meno argue that the bill focuses too much on punishment and not enough on prevention (Hale, 2025). In order to prevent femicide and GBV, there needs to be a shift from a patriarchal society. Women’s empowerment should be encouraged. Equality and financial stability efforts can be achieved through education, social, and cultural policies.

South Africa

South Africa has one of the highest recorded rates of intimate partner femicide globally, affecting 5.5 per 100,000 women, almost five times the global average (Abrahams et al., 2025). A number of factors contribute to the high rate of femicide in South Africa. A report on GBV conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (2024) found that deeply ingrained gender norms and dynamics against women and other marginalized groups are some of the factors that have been associated with GBV. Furthermore, they found that 33% of South African women have experienced physical violence, and about 9.8% have faced sexual violence (Human Sciences Research Council, 2024). Many cases of GBV go unreported as the families of survivors would discourage them from speaking out. Instead, they urge them to settle the issue in other ways, like through family meetings or monetary compensation (UN Women, 2024). Similar to the issues faced in Italy, women in South Africa have higher unemployment rates, higher levels of poverty, and live in a patriarchal society. The South African government has tried to address the growing femicide and GBV rates through passing legislation such as the National Council on Gender-Based Violence Act in 2024, which establishes a council charged with providing leadership in the fight against GBV and femicide. Along with the government passing legislation addressing femicide and GBV, many non-profits have mobilized for better protections and prevention for women and girls.

A number of protest movements have pushed the South African government to take on issues such as femicide and GBV. In 2018, the largest coordinated protest by women in South Africa against GBV brought Pretoria, the country's economic hub, to a standstill and resulted in the government developing the National Strategic Plan On Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (UN Women, 2024). The plan revolves around several pillars, including GBV prevention, strengthening the criminal justice response to GBV, and providing support, care, and healing to survivors of gender-based violence. In 2025, a digital protest, the Purple Movement, was launched by Women for Change to raise awareness about violence against women in South Africa. They encouraged their followers to change their profile pictures to purple. Women for Change is a non-profit organization founded in 2016 that educates, advocates for, and raises awareness of violence against women and children in South Africa. The Purple Movement became one of the largest digital solidarity actions in the fight against GBV in the country. More than 700,000 profile pictures turned purple in solidarity nationally and internationally (Women for Change, 2025). Alongside the digital protest, an online campaign circulated with an online petition that garnered more than a million signatures, urging the government to declare GBV a national disaster. The South African government classified gender violence as a national disaster on November 20th, 2025. The decision allows authorities to dedicate resources and strengthen already existing institutions to tackle GBV and femicide (Williams, 2025). Despite this government decision, millions mobilized both online and in public spaces. 

Protest in Johannesburg against gender-based violence and the rising number of femicides in South Africa before the G20 summit. [Image credit: Anadolu/Getty Images]

On November 21st, 2025, women once again took to the streets to protest against GBV and staged a 15-minute silent lie down, representing the 15 lives lost every day to GBV in the country. During the 15-minute lie down, the names of more than 300 murdered women were read aloud (Women for Change, 2025). The protest was strategically planned when leaders were convening for the G20 Summit in Johannesburg and was quickly dubbed as the ‘G20 Women's Shutdown.’ The protest, also organized by Women for Change, urged women and members of the LGBTQI+ community to refrain from making any purchases, working (paid and unpaid labor), and encouraged protesters to wear black to stand in mourning and resistance. Alongside the protest in Johannesburg, the organization also coordinated protests in 14 other cities in South Africa, with solidarity shutdowns taking place in Berlin, London, Paris, Sydney, multiple cities across the United States, and Japan (Women for Change, 2025). This is not the first time that organizers have used the G20 Summit to gather international attention to an issue, with protests happening during the event in India in 2023 and in Brazil in 2024. 

Conclusion

Several issues make it difficult to reduce femicide and GBV. While the term femicide is becoming more recognized globally, most countries do not have specific legislation criminalizing femicide, resulting in the failure to accurately count and gather data on femicide. The rates of GBV and femicide are most likely higher than what is reported due to the stigma of speaking up. Additionally, there is no agreed-upon universal definition of femicide, making it difficult to accurately count when femicide has occurred. Gender norms and misogynistic attitudes are slower to change in society, only making matters worse in achieving gender equality. Codifying femicide in the penal code, stronger laws on combating femicide on an international stage, increasing early education on femicide and GBV, and encouraging survivors to speak out could lower rates of femicide and GBV. The Italian and South African governments are just two examples of strides toward criminalizing femicide in 2025. These two legislative measures could not have happened without the organizing and mobilizing of women's rights and feminist organizations. In 2025, similar protests occurred in other countries such as Brazil, Turkey, and Argentina to either demand protections against femicide or protect already existing laws. The fight for gender equality is far from over.

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Glossary

• Criminalizing- To make something illegal. 

• Gender-based violence (GBV)- Can include sexual, physical, mental and economic harm inflicted in public or in private. It also includes threats of violence, coercion and manipulation. This can take many forms such as intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation and so-called ‘honour crimes’.

• Honor killings- refer to the practice of murder committed within families or social groups to preserve or restore perceived honor, often involving women who are believed to have transgressed cultural norms.

• Infanticide- The killing of an infant.

• Misogyny- Hatred of, aversion to, or prejudice against women.

• Mobilization- The act of organizing or preparing something, such as a group, for a purpose. 

• Patriarchy- A society controlled by men in which they use their power to their own advantage. 

• Penal- Liable to punishment.

• Transfeminism- A movement supporting the belief that the rights of transgender women are linked to the feminist movement, specifically the right to express a gender identity that does not correspond to one’s sex assigned at birth.

• Unanimously- Having the agreement and consent of all. 

• Universal- Including or covering all or a whole collectively or distributively without limit or exception.

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Sources

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