Course on measuring gender-based violence against women and femicide-feminicide

Gender-based violence against women is a fundamental human rights violation and a major obstacle to development in Latin America and the Caribbean. It violates and restricts women's enjoyment of their fundamental rights and freedoms, with serious consequences for the health, economic opportunities, rights, and well-being of between 30% and 70% of women in the region. Its consequences not only profoundly affect the lives of women victims but also threaten the stability, security, and well-being of their families and communities. For more than three decades, this scourge has been one of the most pressing issues on the international and regional human rights agenda.

The challenge of measuring the prevalence and incidence of gender-based violence against women has been a concern of international instruments. In Latin America, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Belém do Pará Convention, the Regional Gender Agenda, and the 2030 Agenda have all established that efforts to end violence against women must be accompanied by rigorous and reliable statistics. 

The duty of due diligence of States, enshrined in CEDAW, obliges them to adopt all appropriate measures to prevent, investigate, prosecute, punish, and provide redress for acts or omissions by non-State actors that result in gender-based violence against women. This obligates State actors to investigate and record the various services provided by the State to victims and survivors, and consequently, to produce and disseminate statistical data derived from State efforts in prevention, support, redress, and protection of victims, as well as from judicial proceedings. Along with implementing strategies to end gender-based violence against women, these efforts must be accompanied by reliable statistics on the various manifestations, characteristics, causes, and consequences of gender-based violence experienced by women in all their diverse contexts and situations.

The accumulated analysis of the processes of measuring and investigating gender-based violence against women has been built thanks to the consensus of international, state, academic and civil society actors, which has allowed progress in strengthening a socio-statistical analytical field of great importance for the social sciences and its implications in different areas of knowledge.

To understand the processes for measuring gender-based violence against women, derived from surveys, administrative records, and statistics produced by state agencies in Latin American countries, as well as the tools for regional comparability. Participants will also learn about the monitoring and data production mechanisms for violence against women generated by civil society organizations.

The proposal of this course consists of generating a virtual training space, with expository classes and discussion forums, taught by professionals and academics with extensive experience in the formulation, analysis of public policies and the measurement of gender-based violence against women in countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

• To understand the international and regional regulatory framework on gender-based violence against women, in particular the mandates and recommendations on measuring its prevalence and incidence.
• To describe the analytical framework for the production of information on gender-based violence against women and the necessary ethical parameters for the collection and dissemination of information from a gender equality and intersectionality perspective.
• Identify the main sources and procedures for measuring gender-based violence against women.
• To know the results of the national surveys on violence against women and the modules in specific surveys on violence against women developed in health and demographic surveys.
• Developing capacities to generate statistics from administrative records and their usefulness in accounting for state and civil responses to femicidal violence.
• To account for the tools for international comparability of femicide/feminicide data in the region.
• Exchange knowledge and practices on proposals and mechanisms for monitoring and producing data on gender-based violence against women generated by civil society organizations.

• Surveys measuring the prevalence of violence against women: regional experiences
• Sources, procedures and challenges used to measure gender-based violence against women and girls: Methodological challenges
• Monitoring the Belem do Pará Convention. Compliance process indicators
• Administrative records on violence against women, standardization for the generation of statistics on violence against women in general, and on femicide
• The quality of the measurement of femicide/feminicide and violent deaths due to gender
• Proposal for standardization. The Single Registry of Femicide for Latin America and the Caribbean
• How can we improve the data on the murders of women and girls?
• Violence Against Women Registry Systems: The Mexico City Experience
• New dimensions of analysis in violence against women, disappearances, trafficking, and femicide. Challenges in information gathering
• The challenges of intersectionality for measuring extreme violence against women.
• Measuring violence against women and girls during the COVID-19 crisis: Old measurement problems versus new and urgent responses for recovery
• The role of Civil Society Organizations and feminist organizations and capacity building to report on violence against women
• Lessons learned and challenges in measuring gender-based violence against women. Synthesis panel

The course will be developed in 14 sessions led by the teaching team.

At the beginning of each week, participants will have access to an explanatory video in the course's virtual classroom about the topic(s) to be covered during the week, as well as the required and optional reading materials. Participants will be able to review the material and participate in the proposed activities. Subsequently, the instructor for each class will elaborate on the topics for each session and engage in dialogue with the participants in a weekly synchronous meeting.