Femicide, the most extreme form of violence against women, is a global problem linked to structural power inequalities between men and women. Although there have been advances in information systems and legal frameworks to raise awareness of and address gender-based violence and femicide in different countries, there are also setbacks, and how to convert data into effective prevention policies remains a major challenge.
The GenTIC team has conducted a study to explore how data on femicides in Spain and Colombia are collected and analysed, and what lessons can be learned to improve public policies and social action against gender-based violence. Based on the experiences of state and citizen observatories on femicide, the open-access study Datos sobre feminicidios. Oportunidades y desafíos para las instituciones y la sociedad civil en los Estados español y colombiano identifies good practices and recommendations to fill existing gaps and go beyond data to achieve social transformation.
The study is part of the Feminicide Data Project, which was driven by the Unitary Platform Against Gender Violence with financial support from the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation. The research was led by GenTIC director Milagros Sáinz and carried out with GenTIC researchers Beatriz López and Mónica Grau Sarabia, as well as Susana Galán, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI), and Valentina Gómez, Coordinator of the Observatory of Women and Gender Equity and a professor at the Industrial University of Santander in Colombia.
Opportunities and challenges against feminicide
The report highlights that Colombia and Spain have taken significant steps in the legal recognition of feminicide. However, this recognition is insufficient if it is not accompanied by consistent, comprehensive enforcement that is not limited solely to the scope of partners and ex-partners relationships. There are some established tools for measuring gender-based violence against women, such as the open data portal of the Attorney General’s Office in Colombia, which collects disaggregated data by age, ethnicity, LGBTIQ+ status and geographical location. The study also highlights, as a success story and example of best practice, the Feminicidio.net project, which has developed a collective memory around the victims and not only records data, but also offers training and awareness-raising programmes for diverse audiences. Other good practices in Latin America include the Latin American Protocol for the Investigation of Femicide promoted by United Nations, and the UN Women’s Spotlight initiative. In Europe, the study highlights the reports of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and the European Survey on Gender-Based Violence promoted by the Spanish Government Delegation against Gender Violence.
The research team distils recommendations to improve standardisation and collaboration between state institutions and civil society organisations for data collection and analysis, and points out that simply improving the data is not enough. Experts interviewed in the study emphasise that data should never be an end in itself, as there is a risk of dehumanisation and normalisation of violence against women. It is essential to include explanations about the phenomenon and collect data on the context in which femicide occurs in order to understand gender-based violence at a structural and cultural level. Furthermore, they argue that we must go beyond protecting victims and that efforts should be made to detect patterns of violence and obtain data on perpetrators to help identify the risk of femicide.
The report also highlights the role of civil society organisations, pointing out that data collected by associations and citizens can help to fill information gaps relating to unknown or poorly recorded forms of violence. Finally, findings emphasise the responsibility of mass media to promote empowering and responsive narratives that do not dehumanise victims, as well as the importance of integrating men committed to equality and opposing gender-based violence into training and awareness campaigns aimed at both men and women.
Read the UOC News interview with GenTIC director Milagros Sáinz on the key results of the Feminicide Data study: ‘It is not enough to improve the data; we need to transform the social, institutional and symbolic conditions that make violence possible.’
Video of the seminar on feminicide data
In September 2025, we organised a Seminar on Data on Feminicide in collaboration with the Unitary Platform Against Gender Violence. The seminar brought together government and citizen observatories on femicide from Europe and Latin America to share experiences and discuss ways to improve data collection and collaboration to eliminate violence against women. You can watch the video of the event below.
Reference report
Sáinz, M. [Milagros], López, B. [Beatriz], Galán, S. [Susana], Grau, M. [Mónica], and Gómez, V. [Valentina]. (2025) Datos sobre feminicidios: Oportunidades y desafíos para las instituciones y la sociedad civil en los Estados español y colombiano. Plataforma unitària contra les violències de gènere. https://hdl.handle.net/10609/153425.
Foto by Rad Pozniakov on Unsplash.