Femicide - ett brott mot de mänskliga rättigheterna

Violence against women is a widespread global problem and a violation of human rights. An estimated 35% of all women in the world have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence, and the perpetrator in the majority of cases has been a current or former partner. This thesis addresses the topic of violence against women with a fatal outcome – femicide, which is a more extreme form of violence against women. The purpose of this work is to defend the thesis that femicide ought to be seen as a violation of human rights. A central assumption is that femicide is based on patriarchal structures and that it should, therefore, be regarded as a hate crime against women. In order to understand and interpret the pehnomenom of femicide, this work relies on an idea-analysis based on Michel Foucault and Raewyn Connell's relational power perspective. Conventions and declarations relating to femicide are analyzed to bring clarity to the violations that femicide constitutes. The results indicate that femicide is charactarized by misogynist- and structural violence and consitutes violations of the human rights. Protection from femicide is deficient, and femicide is often classified as murder. Several conventions and declarations exist that are designed for the purpose of protecting women from violence, but only one mentions violence against women with a fatal outcome. Power relations and patriarchal structures need to be highlighted and questioned in order to strengthen women's rights and freedom from violence and femicide. Key words: Femicide, Violence against women, Human rights, Women’s rights, Patriarchal structures, Relational power.