My “O or dead”, tragic balance in northern Macedonia, 26 women killed in five years

My former partner, Ilija Stefanovski, was only one of dozens of threatening messages that 31-year-old Rosica Kocheva had received a few days before her former partner, Ilija Stefanovski, killed with her father near their home in Veles. This is the latest case of childicide in northern Macedonia, documented by police.

Rosica had repeatedly denounced the violence and continued threats of the former partner, not only to her, but also to her parents and friends, but her case had never been taken seriously by institutions.

Before the act was carried out, the assassin Ilija Stefanovski was sentenced only to conditional punishment and stopping measures to approach, which he had not respected. After the double murder, he killed himself.

This remains one of many cases questioning the institutional response to women's calls for help.

For five years, 26 murdered women

Rosica is only one of a total of 6 women killed in Macedonia during 2025. Five women were killed in 2024.

Two of them had in advance denounced domestic violence.

The year 2023 was the worst in women's murder, with a total of 9 victims. Three cases are related to domestic violence.

In Eurostat rankings for 2023, northern Macedonia was among the highest rated countries in Europe, with 6 childicides per million people, and ranked third after Lithuania and Latvia.

In 2022 two women were killed, and in 2021 four cases of women's murder were recorded.

Macedonia among the first states in the region to recognise childicide legally

Killing a woman does not necessarily mean childicide. For a case to qualify as such, it is necessary to prove that the murder is linked to gender, respectively, that the woman has been killed because of being a woman.

Despite the fact that the term <x0femicid” is not used in the Penal Code, in 2023 Article 123 was completed in paragraph 2 which sanctioned the murder of a woman or girl until the age of 18 “due to gender-based violence”.

Because this has not been regulated, it is not known exactly how many women's murders qualify as childicides. Currently, the National Network Against Violence in the Family is analyzing all judgments and decisions related to the murder of women between 2014 and 2023 and is expected to publish a report that will provide a clearer mirror on the nature of these cases.

For DW representatives of this organisation, said that during the above-mentioned years in northern Macedonia, 40 attempts for women's murder have been recorded, while 75 women have been killed.

Macedonia fails to prevent childicide cases

Martha Gusar, a lawyer who has often represented women, victims of domestic violence, stresses that prevention remains the problem.

The key problem in our country is that childicide is not prevented. When the childicide occurs, it's already too late. The Istanbul Convention is the document from which prevention flows. Institutions must recognize gender-based violence, understand childicide and address the problem systematically,” says Gusar.

Killing women remains disturbing

“Statistics show that the number of childicides is high, especially for a state of size like Macedonia. And the question of whether this phenomenon is being treated enough seriously in practice, unfortunately, gets negative answers due to exactly these figures,” says Gusar.

“It is enough to take over Rosica's murder, this tragic event once again showed that the fundamental problem lies in insufficient prevention and in the lack of gender-based violence”, adds lawyer Gusar.

Violence Has Different Forms

According to women's rights activists, it is imperative that all professionals dealing with cases of gender-based violence and domestic violence be trained to identify all forms of violence, including psychological, social, and economic, not just physical violence.

This is because often, when women report violence, they face discouragement at police stations. There are times when they were told they did not possess enough evidence, even when the allegations contained elements of criminal activity “risking security”.

Insufficient Coverage Capacity

Another challenge is housing capacities for victims of violence, which in Macedonia continue to be insufficient. According to official data, the number of beds reaches only 37 percent of the capacity the state must provide according to the number of residents. Out of a total of 67 beds at the country level, 19 are managed by nongovernmental organisations. / DW