After two murders in one week, civil society calls for femicide to be declared an emergency

The killing of two women within a week has reignited debate over institutional failures to ensure women’s safety and protect their lives. In response to the situation, women’s rights organizations and civil society representatives have called on citizens to gather in the square in protest.

Women’s organizations have described these cases as femicide— the killing of women linked to gender-based violence, RTK reports.

Following the killing of a woman in Malisheva, acting Minister of Justice and National Coordinator for Protection from Domestic Violence, Violence against Women and Gender-Based Violence Donika Gërvalla organized a meeting with representatives of the Police, Prosecution, courts and the Center for Social Work.

The meeting aimed to assess how institutional mechanisms are functioning and examine measures to prevent similar incidents. Gërvalla said that no institution or link in the system should fail.

The figures show the scale of the problem: 11 women have been killed over the past four years, three of them this year alone. Despite legal changes and the establishment of new protection mechanisms, violence against women remains one of the greatest challenges facing Kosovo’s institutions. Since 2010, the number of women killed within their families has reached 62.

For women’s organizations, these incidents cannot be treated as isolated episodes, but as evidence of a systemic problem.

RrGK has documented 155 cases of gender-based violence between 2025 and May 2026, including cases of femicide. Its monitoring has highlighted difficulties in the functioning of the justice system and in the way institutions respond to cases of violence.

Four years ago, Kosovo was shaken by the killing of Hamide Magashi, a pregnant woman who was murdered at QKUK.

Although a protection order was in effect for her, she was killed. Following the incident, legal changes were introduced and around 600,000 euros were invested in an electronic system to monitor people subject to such measures. Nevertheless, the killings of women continue.