Three women brutally killed in one day in France, in ‘unbearable’ start to new year

France is just one of many countries grappling with what the United Nations has called a global The New Year’s Day killings in France shocked many and prompted a renewed call for tougher action against those who commit violence against women and girls. Speaking to CNN, Marylie Breuil, spokesperson for Nous Toutes, a French feminist campaign group, said that although the killings were “shocking,” campaigners in the country were sadly “not surprised” by the turn of events. “Violence doesn’t stop with the New Year,” she said. According to police, a 56-year-old woman was found dead with a knife in her chest in Labry, in the country’s northeast, after officers were called to reports of a domestic disturbance on January 1. A man has been placed under formal investigation for the crime of “murder of a partner.” In the second case, a 28-year-old female military recruit was found stabbed to death near Saumur in western France, according to the town’s prosecutor. A 21-year-old man, a soldier, was detained in relation to her death; investigators suspect a possible killing by her partner. Then, the body of a 45-year-old woman was found in the trunk of a car in Nice. She had been strangled, according to Maud Marty, deputy prosecutor in the southern city. Prosecutors have launched formal investigations for manslaughter and intentional homicide against her ex-husband, 60.Across Europe, cases of violence against women are stoking growing outrage. In Greece, where 17 femicides were recorded in 2021 according to public broadcaster ERT, the government was criticized for rejecting an opposition amendment that would have established institutional recognition of the term femicide. In November, after a 48-year-old woman was stabbed 23 times by her husband in Thessaloniki, opposition leader Alexis Tsipras posted on Facebook: “There should be no political disputes when we dramatically experience the effects of gender based violence on a daily basis.”In the United Kingdom, following the March kidnap and murder of “We realize that 65% of these women could have been saved if things had been handled correctly, if their complaints were taken up, if we had listened to these women,” Breuil stressed. The French government was quick to condemn the January 1 killings, with Equality Minister Elisabeth Moreno tweeting that she lamented the violent deaths and felt for the victims’ children and other bereaved relatives. The police, magistrates, health services and other bodies are “constantly mobilized” to fight against “this scourge,” she said. The campaigners, however, remain unimpressed with the government’s response to the tragedies. “Following the three femicides that took place within 24 hours in France the only thing that was done was the minister of equality went to discuss with the associations,” Breuil said. This is not the first time the French government has come under fire for its handling of domestic violence.Since 2019, when France saw Addressing reporters in October, Interior Minister Gerald Darminin Femicide, also known as feminicide, is The five categories range from the murders of women linked to sexual violence, including trafficking and prostitution, to murder by men in the woman’s family, as in so-called honor killings. They also include “vicarious femicide,” defined as the “murder of a woman or minor children, by a man as an instrument to cause injury or harm to another woman.”Spain has been shaken by recent cases involving violence against women and their children.A girl of three was killed in Madrid at the end of December in a presumed case of gender-based violence, the government said — one of seven children to lose their lives in that way last year. In June, angry demonstrations were held in cities across the country after a man was accused of killing his two daughters, Olivia, six, and Anna, one, and dumping their bodies in the sea off the Spanish island of Tenerife, Reuters reported.”The plan of the accused was to cause his ex-partner the greatest pain she could imagine, by deliberately causing uncertainty about the fate that Olivia and Anna had suffered at his hands,” a court document said, according to the news agency.Equality Minister Irene Montero said the new system would mean all “sexist murders of women, because they are women,” would be counted. “Naming feminicides is to do justice, the most basic exercise of reparation with all victims of sexist violence,” she said in a government news release.In this way, Montero said, “we are making progress in making all forms of sexist violence visible in order to carry out the public policies necessary to eradicate them. What you don’t name, does not exist.”French campaigners support this move and are pushing for a similar framework to be adopted in their country. Nous Toutes want the femicides of young girls and women outside couples also “to be counted, so we can show the extent of the abuse against women in France,” said Breuil.French society is “ready to see a change” because it “understands that these abuses are not inevitable” and can be avoided, Breuil concluded.CNN’s Duarte Mendonca, Anaëlle Jonah, Chris Liakos and Camille Knight contributed to this report.