Colombia Passes Law Against Femicide To Target Violence Against Women
Colombia’s new law on femicide is an important step to combat violence against women, but forensic experts and prosecutors will need to change the way they investigate gender-related killings to win convictions. The law, which came into effect July 6, makes femicide a distinct and legally defined crime, with jail sentences of 20 to 41 years.
In Colombia, where out of 47 million people, on average one woman is killed every two days, the issue of femicide (the killing of a woman by a man because of her gender) is the hot topic.
Colombia follows 15 other countries in Latin America that have passed laws in recent years that define and punish femicide as a specific crime.
