Not just family violence: New report highlights NZ femicide crisis, exposes unaccounted victims

NZ Herald

29-06-2025

Gender-based violence will continue and may escalate, causing incalculable harm to the women and girls against whom the violence is directed, and to society as a whole through the ripple effects of femicide.'
'Femicide: Deaths Resulting from Gender-Based Violence in Aotearoa New Zealand' is a report by the Family Violence Death Review subject matter expert group, released this morning by the National Mortality Review Committee, He Mutunga Kore.
It expands the traditional understanding of family violence deaths to include women who've been overlooked in national data and prevention strategies – including older women facing neglect or abuse-related homicide, victims of technology-facilitated abuse and people from disabled, rainbow and migrant/refugee communities whose experiences are invisible in current datasets.
It also includes maternal suicide – revealing 63% of victims had a police-recorded family violence history – and highlights rising perinatal deaths linked to violence during pregnancy, described as 'a clear threat to life for both women and babies that is still not being addressed seriously enough by health and justice systems'.
The report found Māori women and girls are significantly overrepresented among family violence homicide victims. 'Between 2018 and 2022, had rates been equal across ethnicities, an estimated 25 more Māori women and girls would be alive today.'
'This is not about individual acts,' the report stressed. 'It's about systemic inequities, colonisation, racism, poverty and the failure to respond to community needs.'
Recommendations include a stronger multi-agency response focused on early intervention; proper after-care for survivors – not just crisis response; better data to ensure no one falls through the cracks; support grounded in culture and centred on whānau – especially for Māori; and a national conversation that treats gender-based violence as a public, not private, issue.
Ultimately, many of the deaths recorded in the report could – and should – have been prevented.
A new report has highlighted a femicide crisis in New Zealand. Photo / 123RF
'Femicide is the most extreme manifestation of violence against women and girls,' said He Mutunga Kore chair Liza Edmonds.
'It's a human rights violation – and we must act now.'
Atwool said the ninth report aimed to improve understanding and 'spark action to address the undercounted and avoidable deaths of women and girls in Aotearoa'.
'To bring people together to create the prevention and response strategies that are so urgently needed,' she said.
'I have worked in the social service sector for more than 50 years and I have never known the challenges to be as great as they currently are. Until we are willing to address the systemic barriers that have been created, the substantive changes identified in this report are unlikely to be addressed in any meaningful way.'
Atwool said using the term 'femicide' shifts the focus from a simplistic framing of violence as individual incidents to a human rights issue the state has a duty to address.
'Individualistic responses don't address the underlying issues embedded in continued gender inequity.'
She said while initial focus was on intimate partner violence, it has since extended to include violence between other family members, and child abuse and neglect. Yet responses remain incident-based.
'This has limited our capacity to recognise links between violence and outcomes like suicide, perinatal and elder deaths. Only by seeing the bigger picture can we grasp the true damage.'
She said the only solution is a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach.
'We have a fragmented, siloed system with different aspects assigned to different government departments and community organisations. Efforts to coordinate have largely failed, limiting Te Aorerekura's implementation.
'Until we adopt a comprehensive approach that includes prevention, early intervention and community collaboration, these issues won't be addressed.'
Dr Nicola Atwool. Photo / Supplied
She said while perpetrators must be held accountable, responsibility also sits with government agencies.
'In all family violence homicide cases we've reviewed, agencies missed chances to intervene with both victims and perpetrators.'
Atwool warned a one-size-fits-all response is dangerous, ignoring personal, cultural and local differences.
'In a diverse country like New Zealand, the most effective responses are tailored to the communities they serve. Standardised models often exclude those who don't meet narrow criteria, compounding harm.
'If we fail to act, we silence this human rights issue. Violence will continue and may escalate, harming women and girls and society as a whole.
'Lack of prevention and aftercare perpetuates intergenerational trauma that must be urgently addressed.'
She said families who've lost loved ones to femicide deserve more than justice – they deserve care.
'Neglecting that duty increases trauma's long reach. These deaths are preventable, and turning our backs misses crucial intervention opportunities.
'Doing so increases the risk of repeating cycles of violence and poor health outcomes. The issue of aftercare was raised in our third report and again in our eighth. That it remains unresolved reflects poorly on us all.'
Atwool said New Zealand isn't yet ready for the hard conversations required.
'We all protect ourselves from confronting truths. The beliefs that underpin gender-based violence run deep. We need courage and openness to have honest conversations,' she said.
'The most confronting part of this report was the scale of the systemic gaps. Women's vulnerability is still often overlooked in situations where it should be recognised and responded to.
'The continuing invisibility of LGBTQI, migrant and refugee women, older women and women with disabilities is also confronting.
'We only see what we count – and these groups are invisible because they're not identified in existing data.
'The tragedy is clear in the scenarios we include. They show missed chances for help, inadequate responses to help-seeking, children's exposure to violence, and women dying – including by suicide.
'That we continue to ignore these messages makes the work difficult. The alternative scenarios we've provided show when and how things could have been done differently.'
Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 19 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz