#WeAll: “Femicides, or the unsustainable omission of the State”

In fact, to do its calculations, the State only accepts a reductive definition of the term femicide which does not correspond to the reality on the field. It lists only femicides committed by a spouse or ex-spouse, thus departing from the definition given by the World Health Organization. This includes “ any murder of girls or women simply because they are women ». The different categories of femicide are listed there and far exceed those of the government. “ Violence is influenced by several factors that operate at four levels: individual, relational/family, community and social or structural. “.

The Inter Orga Féminicides, of which #NousToutes is part, records at least 134 feminicides in 2023, which is 40 more than the State. This difference is explained by a calculation that aims to be exhaustive and as close as possible to reality. We take into account all elements of the WHO definition and not just those chosen by the government.

We include two further categories, which the government has consciously decided to leave aside: family femicides (committed by a father or son, for example) and social femicides, which occur in a friendly, professional or other context. We have recorded at least 97 marital femicides, 3 more than the State, 17 family femicides and 20 social femicides for 2023 alone. As we can see, femicide, as predicted by the Minister of Justice, is not representative: marital murders are actually just the tip of the iceberg.

The government’s refusal to count the other 40 femicides committed in 2023 demonstrates its negligence, its contempt for the issue of gender violence and its lack of determination in the fight against sexist and sexual violence. He chooses to turn a blind eye to the very nature of feminicide: the crimes of possession. Because yes, even today men imagine they can possess women.

#We all

So, what does Emmanuel Macron do with his “great cause of the five-year mandate”? In 2017 he declared that he wanted to fight against gender and sexual violence… had he already forgotten? At what stage are the negotiations to include the notion of femicide in the penal code? We are tired of waiting.

By ignoring the additional 40 women killed because of their gender in 2023, the government is complicit in these murders. To refuse to name and define femicide for what it is, the murder or forced suicide of a woman or girl because of their gender, is to knowingly allow women to die.

Killing your mother is feminicide. Killing a prostitute is feminicide. Killing your neighbor, or even a simple stranger, is femicide. Killing a woman because she is a woman is feminicide. Let’s not let the government make our dead invisible to hide its inaction.

Since 2019, the #NousToutes count has recorded all these misogynistic murders of women, because women, thanks to the action of volunteers who alternate every day. Unlike the overall figure published once a year by the Ministry of Justice, we study the circumstances of each of these deaths. We publish their names, their ages and their stories. However, the essential measures to combat femicide are known : massive deployment of protection orders, training of law enforcement officers to collect the words of victims, as well as funding of associations and creation of reception places.

The state refuses to deploy them.

In 2023 we recorded 153 femicide attempts, but we know that in reality there are many more. Until the state proposes adequate public policies, the number of murders will not decrease. Femicides are not inevitable, the state simply refuses to fight them.

To our murdered sisters, we will never forget you.

We provide our support to all victims, their families and loved ones.

We believe you,

You are not alone,

#We all.

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