On a worldwide scale, Mexico became the first Latin American country to enact legislation against femicide.
Africa has also established strong legal and legislative frameworks to combat gender-based violence and improve women’s rights.
A gender taskforce report on GBV and femicide, delivered to President William Ruto, identified major legislative and systemic flaws impeding the fight against these vices.
The report by the Technical Working Group on Gender-based Violence Including Femicide says Kenya lacks a clear legal definition of femicide.
This, it says, has in turn led to inconsistent case handling and inability to collect meaningful data for prevention, response and accountability.
“This gap limits the prevention, which fails to address structural causes of gender-based killings, including intimate partner violence and dowry-related abuse,” according to the analysis.
The absence of a unique femicide statute or legal acknowledgment of femicide as a distinct crime is a gap, as opposed to other jurisdictions such as Mexico, Malta, and Cyprus, where femicide is expressly recognized and addressed.
It claims that the deficiencies have led survivors of GBV to retraumatizing court processes and uncoordinated, trauma-insensitive services, with frontline responders lacking adequate training.
“Harmful cultural practices, including early childhood marriage, widow cleansing and beading, continue unabated, often rationalised as cultural rites despite years of awareness campaigns,” according to the article.
Furthermore, growing forms of gender-based violence are inadequately handled in existing legal and policy frameworks, especially where provisions exist, but implementation and enforcement are weak.”
The report says families and community actors often obstruct justice by informally resolving GBV and femicide cases through clan elders or traditional systems.
These processes frequently involve coercion, victim-blaming and silencing of survivors, especially where bride price, family honour or kinship ties are involved, it said.
According to the report, this has undermined formal legal processes and perpetuated impunity.
At a global scale, Mexico became the first Latin American country to legislate against femicide through the General Law on Women’s Access to a Life Free from Violence (2007). The law defines the killing of a woman based on gender, including intimate partner violence, and mandates special investigation procedures for femicides.
Similarly, in Malta, the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and for Related Matters Law (2021) provides for measures to address GBV and femicide.
In 2022, Cyprus introduced an amendment to the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence Law (2021), defining and criminalising femicide, reflective of its commitment to combat GBV in line with the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women.
Africa has also developed robust legal and policy frameworks that complement global efforts to address GBV and advance women’s rights.
These regional instruments are grounded in Africa’s unique socio-political realities and provide targeted commitments for state parties to eliminate violence against women and girls in all its forms.
They include Maputo Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) which addresses the women rights and gender-based violence. The Protocol was ratified in Kenya in 2010.
“Without ratification, these frameworks remain non-binding, limiting the ability to address GBV in informal and domestic work settings where women are particularly vulnerable.”
“The convention has a comprehensive framework for the prevention and elimination all forms of violence against women and girls across Africa and advocates for coordinated responses and provision of integrated services to victims and survivors,” it says.
“The convention has a comprehensive framework for the prevention and elimination all forms of violence against women and girls across Africa and advocates for coordinated responses and provision of integrated services to victims and survivors,” according to it.
The research recommends ratifying the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AU-CEVAWG 2025), which recognizes femicide as a distinct crime.
