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from official reports, while other data, from media reports, are unverified. The
census records women killed by men under any circumstance, not just intimate
partner violence. Data are disaggregated by age, nationality, ethnicity and
occupation of both the victim and perpetrator. Information on the health condition
of the victim, including whether she was pregnant, and the relationship status with
her perpetrator are recorded. This includes whether they were separated and, if so,
the time that had elapsed between the actual separation or end of the relationship
and the victim’s death (from the information analysed, it appears that 53 per cent of
intimate partner violence took place within one mo nth of separation), whether the
femicide took place in a context of the victim having rejected the perpetrator’s
advances or was committed in the course of another crime (e.g., high level of
killings of older women in the course of burglaries) and any othe r information that
would shed light on the nature of the femicide.
57. For more than 25 years, the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women has been
producing a “femicide report”, 18 an annual report on domestic violence homicides in
the state. It lists the number of victims of domestic homicide and is compiled from
news accounts and information provided by law enforcement agencies, county
attorneys, court administrators, battered women’s programmes and family members
and friends of the victims. The Coalition notes that the murder of women and
children of colour, women and children living in poverty, rural women and children,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender women and women and children used in
prostitution and sex trafficking may be underreported in its listi ng, given that such
crimes are often not reported in the media.
58. An observatory of domestic violence against women and access to justice 19
was established by the Government of Costa Rica in June 2015 to reflect work on
the prevention, treatment and punishment of violence against women. It serves as an
information platform, presenting the various manifestations of violence against
women, and raises awareness of responses to such violations. It also reviews the
statistics on violence against women provided by civil society organizations.
59. The Special Rapporteur notes that other categories with regard to the victim
that would be valuable to track for such initiatives would be whether she was a
woman human rights defender, whether she was homeless, her se xual orientation,
whether she was an indigenous woman or girl and the mental health of the
perpetrator (e.g., depression or threats to commit suicide).
60. The Special Rapporteur is aware that there are many more initiatives and
projects similar to those mentioned above and invites all States and other
stakeholders to provide her with examples of good practices in this area.
2.
Legislative and policy measures
61. The Latin American Model Protocol for the Investigation of Gender -related
Killing of Women 20 offers guidelines for carrying out an effective criminal
investigation of gender-related killings, in accordance with the international
obligations assumed by States. It is aimed at assisting States in Latin America in
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See www.mcbw.org/#!femicide-report/ctod.
See www.poder-judicial.go.cr/observatoriodegenero/quienes -somos/bienvenida/.
Available from www.un.org/en/women/endviolence/pdf/LatinAmericanProtocolForInvestigation
OfFemicide.pdf.
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