WHY DO WE NEED A FEMICIDE WATCH IN DENMARK?
In 2015, the UN urged all member states to establish a national femicide watch to register and map murders of women. The Femicide Watch Initiative was founded on the recognition that femicides—or gender-related killings of women—represent the most extreme form of violence against women. The initiative aims to prevent violence and killings of women by collecting national data on femicides in order to compare across borders, thereby identifying and accelerating evidence-based policies and strategies to prevent and stop gender-based killings of women.
In Denmark, however, no official femicide watch has been established, and in 2023 the Danish Parliament decided to reject a proposal to create a partner homicide commission, such as the one established in Norway. Denmark therefore lacks an official body that registers and maps femicides with the aim of strengthening the preventive work that both the UN and EU call for—even though it is increasingly recognized that Denmark, too, has a structural problem with violence against and killings of women.
And this is precisely why we have established Femicide Watch—because violence against women and femicides are structural problems that must be prevented, and because we—like the UN—believe that collecting and analyzing knowledge about gender-based violence and killings is the best way to prevent them.

DEFINITION AND DELIMITATION OF THE TERM FEMICIDE
OUR DEFINITION

• Killings of women as a result of intimate partner violence or violence in close relationships
• Killings of women committed by family members
• Killings of women committed by an (acquainted) person with a gender-related motive
• Killings of women committed by a stranger with a gender-related motive, such as remote killings
• In addition, we endorse the other definitions below, as used by the UN, EU, and others

The above definitions are primarily drawn from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2022). We have chosen to highlight these criteria because they are the ones we observe in our data on femicides in Denmark since 2000.

OTHER DEFINITIONS WORTH KNOWING: UN AND EU

• The murder of women as a result of intimate partner violence
• The torture and misogynistic killing of women
• Killing of women and girls in the name of “honour”
• Targeted killing of women and girls in the context of armed conflict
• Dowry-related killings of women
• Killing of women and girls because of their sexual orientation and gender identity
• The killing of Aboriginal and Indigenous women and girls because of their gender
• Female infanticide and gender-based sex-selection foeticide
• Genital mutilation-related deaths
• Accusations of witchcraft
• Other femicides connected with gangs, organized crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and the proliferation of small arms

FEMICIDE WATCH CORE VALUES

• To create ethical and valid research on femicides, conducted with respect for victims and their relatives
• To shed light on femicides and the structures behind them
• To share knowledge with students, journalists, civil society organizations, authorities, and other stakeholders
• To contribute to education and prevention of violence and killings of women

ETHICS AND DATA FOUNDATION
 One of our core values at Femicide Watch is to produce ethical and valid research with respect for victims and their relatives. It is therefore important for us to take responsibility for how we communicate the difficult and complex knowledge we generate at the knowledge center.
This means, among other things, that our work is inspired by the “8 good guidelines for media coverage of violence in close relationships” developed by Danner, LOKK, Mødrehjælpen, Mandecenteret, Lev Uden Vold, and Dialog Mod Voldfor those working with communication related to violence. These guidelines include carefully choosing words in order to understand that depictions of individuals, stories, or information related to violence (and killings) can be retraumatizing for those involved.

BACKGROUND FOR FEMICIDE WATCH: CENTER FOR VIOLENCE PREVENTION
 The Center for Violence Prevention was founded in 2019 with the aim of contributing an interdisciplinary perspective on violence and inequality—one that addresses both the individual’s experiences and needs and places them within a societal perspective that can create new strategies to stop violence and inequality. In 2021, CFV founded the Danish version of a Femicide Watch, which this website is based on.