13 in 2001, 303 women were reported murdered; in 2002 the figure was 317; in 2003 the figure had climbed 51 to 383; in 2004 it rose to 509 and, in 2005, 552 murders of women were reported. 61. In 2004, the IACHR’s Rapporteurship on the Rights of Women made a working visit to Guatemala and observed that several sources had indicated that the degree of violence and cruelty inflicted on the bodies of many female victims had intensified. The Rapporteurship reported having received consistent reports of cases where women were murdered “to set an example,” in which the “abuse reflected by the state of the victim’s body and the areas in which the corpses were left, is 52 designed to send a message of terror and intimidation.” The Rapporteur observed that many of these cases of violence against women are never punished, a fact acknowledged by civil society organizations 53 and by State authorities. 62. A number of international and national organizations have spoken out about the seriousness of the problem of violence against women in Guatemala and the general impunity that the 54 perpetrators of these acts enjoy. The UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women wrote that: The Committee is deeply concerned about the continuing and increasing cases of disappearances, rape, torture and murders of women, the engrained culture of impunity for such crimes, and the gender-based nature of the crimes committed, which constitute grave and systematic violations of women’s human rights. It is concerned about the insufficient efforts to conduct thorough investigations, the absence of protection measures for witnesses, victims and victims’ families and the lack of information and data regarding the cases, the causes of violence and the profiles of the 55 victims. 63. With the alarming increase in the number of women murdered, after a visit to Guatemala the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that ‘while expectations have 51 According to those figures, the number of women murdered between January and June 2006 was 303. National Police of Guatemala. Power Point presentation on Femicide, 2005-2006, June 2006. 52 IACHR, Press Release No. 20/04, The IACHR Special Rapporteur Evaluates the Effectiveness of the Right of Women in Guatemala to Live Free from Violence and Discrimination, Washington, D.C., September 18, 2004, available online at http://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English/2004/20.04.htm. Concerning the differences in the murder rates among women as opposed to men, Guatemala’s Human Rights Ombudsperson said that in almost 80% of the cases in which men are killed, the instrument used is one that does not necessarily involve direct physical contact between the victim and the perpetrator, as for example in the case of a firearm. However, this indirect contact only happens in 69% of the cases in which women are murdered; the remaining 31% are killed with bladed instruments, blunt objects and/or by strangulation. The Human Rights Ombudsperson concluded that by using these forms of violence, the perpetrator would seem to want to make a statement about his physical superiority over the female victim. Human Rights Ombudsperson, Guatemala, Power Point presentation, Guatemala, March 2006, available [in Spanish] online at: http://www.pdh.org.gt/files/inf_especiales/presentacion_muertemujeres03-05.pdf. 53 IACHR, Press Release No. 20/04, The IACHR Special Rapporteur Evaluates the Effectiveness of the Right of Women in Guatemala to Live Free from Violence and Discrimination, Washington, D.C., September 18, 2004, paragraph 17. 54 IACHR, Press Release No. 20/04, The IACHR Special Rapporteur Evaluates the Effectiveness of the Right of Women in Guatemala to Live Free from Violence and Discrimination, Washington, D.C., September 18, 2004; Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW/C/GUA/CO/6, June 2, 2006, Original: English, 35th session, May 15 to June 2, 2006, paragraph 23, available online at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/35sess.htm; Report "Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective: Violence against Women, Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Yakin Ertürk on the Mission to Guatemala, February 8 to 14, 2004; Guatemala’s Human Rights Ombudsperson, Compendium titled “Muertes Violentas de Mujeres”, 2003 a 2005 p. 92. http://www.pdh.org.gt/files/inf_especiales/muerte_mujeres03-05.pdf; Amnesty International, “Guatemala: No protection, no justice: killings of women (an update)”, AI AMR 34/019/2006, 2006; Amnesty International, “Guatemala: No protection, no justice: killings of women”, AI AMR 34/017/2005, June 2005. International Federation of Human Rights (Federación Internacional de Derechos Humanos, FIDH), International Investigative Mission Report: Femicide in Mexico and Guatemala (Informe: Misión Internacional de Investigación: El Femicidio en México y Guatemala), No. 446/3 April 2006. 55 Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW/C/GUA/CO/6, June 2, 2006, Original: English, 35th session, May 15 to June 2, 2006, paragraph 23, available online at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/35sess.htm .