Every November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is observed, as declared by the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 54/134 of December 17, 1999.
That resolution defines violence against women as:
“any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in its General Recommendation Nº 35, considers gender-based violence against women to be one of the fundamental social, political, and economic mechanisms through which women’s subordinate position is perpetuated.
According to this UN body, gender-based violence is a major obstacle to achieving substantive equality between women and men and to women’s enjoyment of the human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Convention.
The date chosen for this commemoration originates in the Americas, as it was on November 25, 1960, in the Dominican Republic, that the sisters Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa Mirabal —later known as “the Butterflies”— were murdered on the orders of dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo because of their political activism against his regime.
The proposal for the international day had emerged earlier, at the First Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Encounter, held in Bogotá in 1981.
It is in this region, precisely, that data on violence against women —across its various forms— remain profoundly alarming.
In 2024, at least 3,828 women were victims of femicide, feminicide, or gender-related violent death in 26 countries and territories of the region, according to recent official data from the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). On average, 11 women are killed every day, amounting to 19,254 feminicides in the past five years.
According to the report, the highest rates were recorded in Honduras (4.3 cases per 100,000 women), Guatemala (1.9), and the Dominican Republic (1.5), while Chile reported the lowest rate: 0.4 per 100,000 women.
Across the region, most violent deaths of women are committed by current or former partners.
In addition, in 2024 there were 587 indirect victims of feminicide —children and other dependents of the victims— in the 10 countries that provide such data.
Presenting the report, ECLAC Executive Secretary José Manuel Salazar stated:
“…we continue to observe unacceptable levels of gender-based violence against women and girls in Latin America and the Caribbean, including its most extreme expression: feminicide. Preventing and eliminating feminicide is not merely a matter of public security, but an urgent objective of the Decade of Action to achieve substantive gender equality and a care-based society.”
This year, the central theme of the commemoration is “UNiTE to End Digital Violence Against Women and Girls.”
Digital violence particularly affects women who have public visibility —activists, journalists, politicians, human rights defenders, and young women.
Its effects are even more severe for women who face intersecting forms of discrimination, such as discrimination based on race, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
These harms often extend into real life, manifesting as coercion, physical abuse, and even femicides.
Digital violence goes beyond harassment on social media; it also includes child sexual exploitation and abuse facilitated by digital technologies.
Other forms include online harassment, cyberstalking, doxxing (the disclosure of personal information), the non-consensual distribution of images, disinformation, fake news, and more.
Impunity is widespread due to the lack of technological regulation and, in some cases, the absence of legal recognition of such attacks —among other factors that hinder prosecution.
According to the World Bank, fewer than 40 percent of countries have laws that protect women, leaving around 44% of the world’s women and girls without legal safeguards.
Because of this, UN Women’s Executive Director, Sima Bahous, has stated:
“Laws must evolve with technology to ensure that justice protects women both online and in the real world. Insufficient legal protection leaves millions of women and girls vulnerable, while perpetrators act with impunity. This is unacceptable. At UN Women, we demand a world in which technology serves equality, not those who cause harm.”
Beyond the necessary laws and public policies, as with all matters of true importance, what is essential lies in the hands of people—in the hands of women fighting for their rights, for their lives.
This is why commemorations are meaningful when they serve to strengthen proposals and actions.
At the close of the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, inspired by the lives and assassination of the Mirabal sisters, author Julia Alvarez writes:
“As is obvious, these women who fought against a tyrant are role models for women who fight against all forms of injustice. Long live the Butterflies!”.