For the past five years, the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) Vienna Liaison Office has committed itself to raising awareness about the many forms of femicide and the impunity sometimes accepted by law enforcement for the most extreme forms of violence against women. We have made a significant contribution in terms of placing these heinous crimes high on the international agenda. We will continue to devote our energies to combatting all forms of gender-based violence (GBV) against women and girls.

In 2016, ACUNS organized two side events at the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) that took place at the UN Headquarters in Vienna. The topic of the first side event was violence against girls fleeing armed conflict, natural disasters, and other humanitarian emergencies. The second side event dealt with the responses of criminal justice and law enforcement institutions in relation to violence against girls. In addition, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, ACUNS is organizing its sixth annual symposium together with the Organiza on for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Fundamental Rights Agency, and Women Against Violence in Europe. The symposium will cover the proposal of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Dubravka Simonovic, to establish a national Femicide Watch in every country, which would aim at collecting information on gender-related killings of women.

FEMICIDE Volume 6: Violence Against Girls contains the speeches delivered at these side events, at which high-ranking officials and experts on GBV presented comprehensive ways of reducing the risk of such violence, increasing the quality of protection for girl victims, and ending the impunity for perpetrators. It also includes the most recent and most effective prevention and mitigation strategies on gender-based violence against underage girls.

In this volume of FEMICIDE we pay particular attention to girl refugees, displaced girls and migrant children, and the specific forms of violence and abuse occurring in the context of their flight. The refugee and migration ows in 2015 and 2016 have often been accompanied by abuses of the rights of children, and girls in particular. In such extreme situations as armed conflict, natural disasters, and other emergencies, girls are especially vulnerable to forced marriage, sexual exploitation, trafficking, psychological and physical intimidation, during all stages of their displacement. As girls are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable and are less likely to seek protection and a remedy, this publication focuses specifically on transnational aspects of violence against children, which are often neglected.

We hope that FEMICIDE Volume 6: Violence Against Girls will serve as a major resource handbook for practioners, academics, state representatives, activists, legislators and prosecutors, and will contribute to providing directions for prevention and effective responses to violence against girls.

Veronika Bezinsky and Michael Platzer

Violence against women is the most atrocious manifestation of the systematic and widespread discrimination and inequality that women and girls around the world continue to face. Women and their children continue to die as victims of gender related killing, often in cruel ways.
The weaknesses of national prevention systems, lack of proper risk assessment and the scarcity or poor quality of data are major barriers in preventing gender-related killing of women and developing meaningful prevention strategies. These weaknesses result in misidentification, concealment and underreporting of gender-motivated killings thus perpetuating impunity for such killings.

For that reason, I call all States to establish a ‘Femicide Watch’ and to publish on each 25 November – International Day on the Elimination of violence against Women – the number of femicides or gender related killing of women per year, disaggregated by age and sex of the perpetrators, as well as the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim or victims. Information concerning the prosecution and punishment of perpetrators should also be collected and published.
Most importantly, each case of gender-related killing should be carefully analysed to identify any failure of protection in view of improving and developing further preventive measures. In the collection, analysis and publication of such data, States should co-operate with NGOs and independent human rights institutions working in this field, academia, victims’ representatives, as well as relevant international organizations and other stakeholders.

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

This summer, we Europeans have been confronted with hundreds of thousands desperate refugees fleeing barbarous wars. In these latest conflicts in the new Millennium, humanitarian law seems to have been abandoned. Civilian populations are targeted, hospitals and cultural monuments bombed and women have been kidnapped, enslaved, raped, and killed. Not since the Second World War have such massive war crimes been committed.

These systematic violations of women’s basic human rights by armed groups to intimidate the enemy or simply as enjoyment as part of the spoils of war is not only a military crime, an international war crime, but also represent national crimes of assault, rape, and murder, which should be prosecuted even years after the incidents have taken place. The international tribunals have found men guilty of such crimes. Countries are also now facing up to their responsibilities to charge combatants and officers for these crimes of femicide.

Although Austria has had a “Protection against Violence Act” since 1997, a third of Austrian women report they have been victims of violent abuse inflicted by persons close to them - their partners, husbands, fathers or brothers. It remains one of the most unreported crimes even in Austria. The situation of migrant women is far worse because they fear losing their legal status if they divorce or charge their husbands with battery or rape. Austria is proud of its women and civil society organizations which maintain emergency helplines, shelters, rape crisis, and counselling centres but we realize that these services often do not reach undocumented migrants. All interventions must prioritize the safety of survivors and their children, but special preventive attention should be given to girls, older women, refugee women, and women with disabilities.

Austria is proud to have been one of the first countries to ratify the Istanbul Convention Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence. We believe that its provisions can be a model for other regions in the world. We are pleased to have co-sponsored both General Assembly resolutions “Taking Action against the Genderrelated Killing of Women and Girls”.
I was happy to speak on this topic at UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and to endorse the continued work of the Academic Council on the United Nations System on this important topic.

Wolfgang Brandstetter, Austrian Minister of Justice

We take great pride in sharing with you the third volume of our Femicide Publica on which we have been releasing annually since the first Femicide symposium in November 2012. Each year, on the occasion of the International Day on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Vienna Liaison Office of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) has organized a symposium on a different theme related to the most extreme forms of violence.

On 25 November 2014, ACUNS, together with the Governments of Austria, Croatia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Norway, Philippines and Thailand, sponsored a symposium on ‘Targeting of Women in War’, which brought together panels of experts to address the various challenges that need to be tackled with great urgency to curb the scourge of sexual violence in conflict. A series of recommendations were made, pointing out that existing legal instruments have proven to be ineffective in addressing this global problem. Perpetrators should be prosecuted and military units must be held to high standards of conduct vis-à-vis civilians. Strict compliance with military and criminal codes must be pursued by the responsible government institutions, while complementary e orts must be undertaken by civil society to ensure proper respect for women and girls in conflict zones.

Once again, we are standing as silent witnesses to the mass killings of women in several places around the world. It is imperative to take concrete steps to stop these unspeakable crimes and ensure that these monstrous rapists and killers are not given impunity. Speakers at the ACUNS conference identified what was done – or not done – after the mass killings in Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Guatemala, Rwanda and Sri Lanka. In his annual Report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, highlights the ongoing challenges faced by individual States in conflict and post-con ict situations to protect women and girls.

Reports published in 2014 and early 2015 by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch contain detailed accounts of sexual slavery in Islamic State captivity, Boko Haram’s acts of sexual violence in north-eastern Nigeria and mass rapes in Darfur. The sheer brutality of these acts and the feelings of desperation that are reflected in victims’ testimonies fill us with disgust and shame. These barbarities which one would have thought belonged to past centuries have reared their heads again in the new millennium. The latest figures on mass rapes and incidents of sexual slavery across the world are discouraging. The international community should not stand idly by while these atrocious crimes are being committed. It is essential for the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to give a strong signal that crimes of sexual violence are not to be tolerated, and that the perpetrators will be brought to justice.

This publication explores the topic of ‘Targeting women in Conflict’ in depth, through a series of strong statements delivered by Secretary-General, the Director of UN Women, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, a prosecutor from the International Tribunal for former Yugoslavia and reports from other UN bodies, as well as academic articles addressing the cross-cutting topics of violence against women, femicide and sexual violence.
The ACUNS-Vienna Femicide Team has committed itself over the past three years to disseminating knowledge on the cross-cutting issue of femicide and engaging with UN practitioners, academics and NGO representatives in order to raise this matter of great importance higher on the international agenda. We continue to encourage UN bodies and national governments to improve e orts in tackling femicide and the most serious forms of sexual violence against women.

Andrada Filip, Michael Platzer and the ACUNS Vienna Femicide Team March 2015

Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread violations of human rights, affecting women and girls of all ages, races and cultures. Today an estimated on in three women will be subject to violence in her lifetime. Femicide - the killing of women because they are women - is the ultimate expresssion of this form of violence, assuming alarming proportions. Despite the appalling extent of this crime, the global response is not sufficient. Sometimes efforts to fight femicide and violence are not coordinated among relevant stakeholders. Too often justice is not served; perpetrators often are not held accountable for their depravities. We must remind the world that gender-related killings against women and girls are not to be tolerated. The perpetrators cannot go unpunished. This issue is not new, but simply the most heinous type of crime against sisters, mothers and daughters worldwide. Femicide and violence against women know no borders, hence concerted efforts in ending these crimes have to be global.

The Government of Thailand was pleased to lead the discussions in the formulation of the Gen assembly resolution 68/191 "Taking Action against Gender-Related Killing of Women and Girls" and to host the High level event in New York on the same subject. In November 2014, the Thailand Institute of Justice will organice an open-ended intergovernmental expert group meeting to discuss ways and means to more effectively prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish gender-related killing of women and girls, with a view to making practical recommendations, drawing also on current best practices, in consultation with relevant United Nations entities and human rights mechanisms. We view this publication as an important background document for the expert group meeting.

I would like to thank the Vienna Office of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) in advancing this important international agenda towards universal eliminiation of violence against women and girls and look forward to continuing cooperation in this common cause.

Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol
Amabassador and Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Thailand
to the United Nations Office in Vienna

Femicide is the ultimate form of violence against women and girls and takes multiple forms. Its many causes are rooted in the historically unequal power relations between men and women and in systemic gender-based discrimination. For a case to be considered Femicide, there must be an implied intention to carry out the murder and a demonstrated connection between the crime and the female gender of the victim. So far, data on femicide have been highly unreliable and the estimated numbers of women who have been victims of femicides vary accordingly. Femicides take place in every country of the world. The greatest concern related to femicide is that these murders continue to be accepted, tolerated or justified – with impunity as the norm.

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Vienna Liaison Office of ACUNS organized a one-day symposium on femicide in the United Nations (UN) Office in Vienna. (1) Member State representatives, social scientists, NGO representatives, law enforcement officials, prosecutors and feminist activists had the opportunity to speak about femicide, explain its meaning and causes, and presented examples of best practice in fighting femicide. This publication is the result of this symposium and comprises the speeches and presentations of the various experts of the symposium. They discussed the issue of femicide from different perspectives, addressed the problems related to femicide including impunity and proposed comprehensive ways to fight this crime efficiently.

In addition to the speeches, this publication contains further information about the major forms of femicide. These short articles give an overview of the various crimes, including a description of the extent of the respective form of femicide and best practice examples to fight this crime. The list of examples is by no means exhaustive but all should be considered murder under the law. In September 2012 an important step was taken in El-Salvador to elaborate a “Protocol for the investigation and documentation of extreme violence against women”, which can be found in this publication.

This publication also contains the first UN document to focus on gender-based killings, the 2012 report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo, to the Human Rights Council. In response to the presentation of this report sixty four states issued a statement that member states “must exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish the perpetrators”. The aim of this publication is to inform practitioners, Member State representatives, NGO workers, legislators, prosecutors and any other relevant actors who can contribute to putting an end to femicide. With this information about the diverse campaigns, we hope that efforts can be combined and strengthened to end this hideous crime once and for all.

(1) The symposium was organized with the kind support of the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs; the Permanent Missions to the UN Office at Vienna of Austria, Argentina, Philippines, Thailand, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Small Arms Survey and the Vienna NGO Committee on the Status of Women.

Edited by: Claire Laurent, Michael Platzer and Maria Idomir