A young girl is sold to an old man. A woman is murdered by her family, a retribution for ‘immoral’ behaviour. A widow is condemned to a life of poverty, her property ripped away by in-laws. A wife is beaten to death by her husband. Young women are kidnapped by armed groups, raped and sold to the highest bidder. Desperate women are trafficked and forced into prostitution.

Extremes of inhumanity? Yes. But these unspeakable crimes were all committed today – as you read this. And each and every day, women are lost, devastated, drowned in a sea of cruelty. Many of these awful acts are outside the territorial control of any government. In some societies, little is done to prevent such crimes, a warped sense of ‘tradition’ placing violence within the family as beyond the reach of the law. And when governments can and do intervene, a lack of coordination among social services, law enforcement and judiciary can often render efforts ineffectual.

We are in the age of the stem cell miracle, in the midst of an unparalleled technological revolution, at the brink of interplanetary travel. Yet the civilised world still stands by, while horrors against women are perpetrated with impunity.

I place great hope in the work of UN agencies, as well as of the many non-governmental and academic organisations seeking to draw attention to these issues and to develop specific, achievable ways to help address them. Women’s organisations worldwide have mobilised to shine the bright light of truth on these problems and on the conditions that give rise to them. Governments are coming together to offer aid, to educate, to craft effective support systems, and to enact meaningful legislation nationally and regulation internationally. I continue to support, and I strongly commend the work of the “Femicide” team. They have been in the vanguard of calling attention to the too-often condoned violence, and contemporary slavery, with which women are victimised.

This issue of FEMICIDE deals with state and international responsibility. We all have a national and international obligation to put an end to such atrocities, to prosecute offenders and to lift up the many victims’ shattered lives. Governments can and must provide “safe places” for at-risk women and children. As a physician, I am acutely focused on the compelling need for medical treatment, counselling and education. And ultimately, there must be a viable plan for providing women with the possibility of economic self-sufficiency, which in turn can assure independence and the chance of a better future.

Let us act together. It is our duty.

Karen E. Burke, M.D., Ph.D.

New York, US

Although violence against and murder of older women is a widespread phenomenon across the world, it receives little targeted attention. The simple fact that women get older than men, and as a result must live alone longer, makes them more vulnerable to exploitation, fraud, robbery and even physical abuse. As such, the abuse and femicide of older women is one of the most widespread unpunished crimes, affecting women of all backgrounds, cultures and countries. In many societies, elderly widows are physically and mentally abused, robbed of their right to inherit their assets – eventually losing their societal status. Due to poor education and no independent income, they are financially insecure and dependent on their children or relatives.

FEMICIDE Volume VIII aims to analyse the ways in which women, over the age of 55, are psychologically and physically mistreated all around the globe, often resulting in death.

For this issue of FEMICIDE, we are extremely grateful to academic researchers Prof. Myrna Dawson, Prof. Janice Joseph, Garima Jain, Prof. Shalva Weil, Dr. Marie-Antoinette Sossou and Dr. Joseph Yogtiba, and the Prevalence study of violence and abuse against older women (AVOW) Team for their reports on the abuse and femicide of older women in Canada, African countries, India, Israel, Austria, Ghana, Belgium, Finland, Lithuania and Portugal, respectively. We would also like to express our gratitude to Feminicidio.net and Women’s Aid who have, again, provided us with reports covering Spain and the UK.

In May 2017, during the 26th Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna, Austria, the ACUNS Femicide Team arranged a High Level and Side Event during the conference. Both events focused on data collection practices of femicides, with speakers from UN Agencies and Offices, Permanent Missions, NGOs and academic researchers. The events were well attended and filled with dynamic discussion. Moreover, the following resolution was adopted:

“The Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice … Also urges Member States to take measures to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish acts of violence against women and girls, in particular gender-related killing, in accordance with national laws, and to act at all levels to end impunity for those responsible for committing such heinous crimes against women and girls;”

In Vienna, Austria, on November 24th, 2017, the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women, a symposium will take place to raise awareness about the violence against older women. The symposium is organised by the Academic Council on the United Nations System, Organization of the Families of Asia and the Pacific (OFAP), UNODC, NGO Committee on Ageing in Vienna, NGO CSW, Soroptomist International and the Permanent Missions of Argentina, Belarus, Costa Rica, Italy, Norway, Slovenia and Spain to the International Organizations in Vienna.

The symposium will bring together stakeholders, such as international organisations, Member States, academia, civil society, including women’s organisations, to highlight the extreme violence against older women and stress the political and social responsibilities to combat these criminal acts. The key objectives will be to identify and discuss the extreme forms of violence against older women throughout the world with a focus on the most common kind of crimes and regional differences; the role of criminal justice in curbing impunity; and recommended programmes of action for national governments, international organisations, and civil society.

Extreme violence against the older woman is a global issue, which occurs in different forms in different regions. We hope that FEMICIDE VIII helps to underline the urgency of the vulnerable situation of the older woman and results in substantial changes in policy and attitudes.

Given the persistence of all forms of violence against women including femicide, fragmented legislative response and the serious lack of comparable data on femicide at a global, regional, and national level, I have called for the establishment of a “Femicide watch” that would contribute to preven on of such violence. These national bodies – Femicide watches or Observatories on femicide should collect and publish numbers of femicides throughout the year on the 25 November – International Day on the Elimination of Violence against Women – disaggregated by age and sex of the perpetrators, as well as the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim or victims.

I have been impressed by the young scholars and activists of the Academic Council on the United Nations System in Vienna and Mr. Michael Platzer who have been outraged by the many heinous forms of the gender related killing of women and girls. Since 2012, they have organised high level discussions with Member States both in Vienna and New York on diverse issues and successfully promoted the adoption of two General Assembly resolutions on gender related killing of women. This is now the seventh volume of FEMICIDE. This publica on serves as a useful handbook of what is being done and said at the United Nations and other international bodies but also gathers information about research and actions taken by women’s organisations, academics and countries from around the world. It is a great example of civil society collabora on with UN mandate holders and effective cooperation with member states.

Dr. Dubravka Šimonović, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences