FEMICIDE ACROSS EUROPE – AN OVERVIEW

Abstract

Femicide is a leading cause of premature death for women globally, distinct from homicide and other forms of gender violence. Femicide research is abundant in the United States. In Europe, agencies have funded initiatives on gender and violence but not specifically on femicide. Research is in its infancy and uncoordinated. It requires an interdisciplinary approach, focusing on victim and perpetrator, upon cultural (e.g.“honour killings”) and psychological causes, and on societal issues.

The Action will establish the first pan-European coalition on femicide with researchers who are already studying the phenomenon nationally, in order to advance research clarity, agree on definitions, improve the efficacy of policies for femicide prevention, and publish guidelines for the use of national policy-makers. Different forms of publications will emerge from the Action, such as articles, books, newsletters and an Action internet site for the use of researchers, practitioners and policy-makers.

Workshops will be held annually, adding advocates and researchers each year, and an Action Conference will be held to attract stakeholders until the Action will organise a pan-European conference to launch the idea of a European Observatory on femicide.

Keywords:
femicide; honour killings; domestic violence; European Observatory; advocacy

Objetives

The Action will be innovative both in terms of its subject matter, and in terms of its approach to the problems:

1. This will be the first time that any network has ever been set up globally to tackle the problem of
   femicide.
2. This will be the first time that data will be coordinated and compared in Europe. I twill focus upon
   definitions and connections between femicide and gender-violence, femicide and migration, and the
   social and psychological characteristics of the victim and the perpetrator.
3. Femicide will be studied by an interdisciplinary network, involving activists as well as researchers on the working groups.
4. The Action will identify best practices that can work cross-nationally and identify policy strategies to promote lower lethal violence rates.
5. The Action will launch a European Observatory to monitor femicide across Europe and make available to field workers and policy-makers a data-base and a collection of all the relevant Europe literature on the subject.