In Honduras, 1 Woman Killed Every 16 Hours

In Honduras, one woman is murdered every 16 hours, which means at least 300 women have been killed in the country so far this year, nongovernmental organization the Center for Women's Rights, known as the CDM, said Tuesday.

“Femicide is the highest expression of violence against women,” Gilda Rivera, a member of CDM, told EFE news agency. In Honduras, this violence prevails where “every 16 hours, a woman dies.”

Femicide is the crime by which women are targeted and murdered because of their gender. According to Rivera, most of these crimes in Honduras have been at the “hands of husbands or intimate partners.”

Honduras has become the murder capital of the world, according to the United Nations. The latest statistics from 2012 show that 90 murders are committed for every 100,000 people in the country.

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Figures also show that for women in Honduras – who represent some 51 percent of the country – homicide is the leading cause of death.

Women are “victims of a violent society and culture,” which prevails in Honduras, said Rivera.

Earlier this year, other local women's rights groups reported that femicides in the country have surpassed epidemic levels. The number of femicides in the country has been reported as 12 deaths for every 100,000 people – according to the World Health Organization, 8.8 deaths per 100,000 residents is enough to be categorized as an epidemic.

Honduras, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, & Guatemala have highest rates of #femicide in Latin America. #NiUnaMas pic.twitter.com/Eg8XgoNOgG

— Heather Gies (@HeatherGies) November 17, 2015

Many Central American countries are battling gender violence. U.N. Women reports that 14 of the 25 countries with the worst femicide rates are in Latin America, and especially the Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Femicide also accounts for seven deaths in any 24-hour period in Mexico, with just 10 people sentenced for the crime from 2012-2013.

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United Nations' figures show that around 66,000 women are killed every year worldwide, accounting for 17 percent of all homicides.

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