Policy on Extreme Forms of Violence Against Women in Europe: The Case of Femi(ni)cide in Germany

In the last few years, European governments have more intensely developed strategies to fight violence against women in their own territories—an evidence of this is the implementation of the Istanbul Convention—but they do not acknowledge femi(ni)cide as part of it. Despite these efforts, women’s organizations and international organisms have pointed out the rise of violence against women in Europe within the context of a globalized world; in this frame of reference, the numbers of femi(ni)cides have also increased. Even when there are no official statistics on these kinds of crimes, one can affirm this by looking at the increasing numbers of deaths in the context of violence within relationships―usually intimate femi(ni)cide represents more than half of the total number of femi(ni)cides. This might suggest that the measurements that governments have been implementing in this field are not very appropriate. This paper will address this relationship between policies on gender-based violence and femi(ni)cide, the overall research question is What is the performance of the concept of femi(ni)cide in political spheres in the European context? More particularly, How is the problem of extreme forms of violence, such as femi(ni)cide, framed in national policies under the implementation of the Istanbul Convention? What do the silences on femi(ni)cide reveal about policy building and framing? In order to address these questions, I will use a cutting-edge feminist methodology, using a case study: femi(ni)cide in Germany. With this article I aim to contribute to filling the academic gap on femi(ni)cide in Western Europe, to encourage further research on this matter, and to provide useful information for organizations dedicated to combat gender-based violence.