The Center of Excellence and ECLAC give technical assistance to INEC-Ecuador to strengthen femicide measurement
August 27th, the Center of Excellence in Statistical Information on Government, Crime, Victimization and Justice (CoE) of UNODC and the Division for Gender Affairs of the Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC) began a process to review the methodology and design of indicators on violence against women and girls in Ecuador.
The National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) of Ecuador regulates and coordinates the National Statistical System, stablishing and enforcing guidelines, policies, norms and standards for statistical production. Therefore, it seeks to strengthen administrative records for statistical use. In this context, it has identified the necessity to strengthen the methodology and design of indicators to analyze the violence against women and girls.
Ecuador publishes monthly femicide data, which is consolidated in the framework of the Special Commission of Statistics on Security, Justice, Crime and Transparency and the Group for Statistical Strengthening of Security and Justice Indicators. In this framework INEC asked for international technical assistance to strengthen its feminicide measurement methodology in line with international recommendations and human rights commitments acquired by Ecuador.
During this process of 4 work sessions, categories and variables for the analysis of feminicide will be reviewed and recommendations for the indicator “intentional homicides in femicide context” (gender-based intentional homicides) will be generated. UNODC and ECLAC will also provide recommendations to strengthen the capacity to quantify and characterize femicides and intentional homicides in femicide context in line with international methodologies.
During the opening, remarks were pronounced by Jorge García Guerrero, INEC´s Underdirector, Salomé Flores Sierra Franzoni, Center of Excellence´s Coordinator and Alejandra Valdés, ECLAC Gender Equality Observatory´s researcher. Experts from INEC, delegates from the Group for Statistical Strengthening (Fiscalía General del Estado, Secretaría de Derechos Humanos, Consejo Nacional para la Igualdad de Género, Policía Nacional, Consejo de la Judicatura, Servicio Nacional de Atención Integral a Personas Adultas Privadas de la Libertad y a Adolescentes Infractores) and, experts from CoE and ECLAC joined the meeting.
The first session focused on: The measurement of femicide at the regional level and its institutional architecture, in charge of Alejandra Valdés (ECLAC); Feminicide and intentional homicide of women for gender-based reasons, according national norms, in charge of Mariela Córdova (ECLAC); Analysis of national experiences of feminicide measurement in some countries of the region, in charge of Alejandra Valdés and; The global indicator on intentional homicide and its disaggregation, in charge of Salomé Flores Sierra Franzoni (CoE).
The session highlighted the relevance of having measurements for evidence-based decisions to prevent violence against women and the need to harmonize the way in which information is reported in order to increase clarity towards public opinion and the policy makers.
This activity will strengthen the capacities of the government of Ecuador to generate statistics to monitor the SDG 5 and SDG 16 indicators of the 2030 Agenda.
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