A/HRC/45/CRP.11 1003. The Public Prosecutor’s Office also reported 115 femicides in 2015 1744 and 122 in 2016.1745 These numbers refer only to women killed for reasons related to their gender. 1746 Women’s rights organizations have denounced the lack of consistent official statistics and disaggregated data, as it limits the possibility to analyse trends in violence against women. 1747 1004. Absent clear official numbers, the NGO Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV)1748 has the most widely referenced information regarding insecurity in Venezuela. The OVV has documented the following numbers of violent deaths: in 2014, 24,980 violent deaths (a rate of 82 per 100,000);1749 in 2015, 27,875 violent deaths (90 per 100,000);1750 in 2016, 28,479 violent deaths (91.8 per 100,000);1751 in 2017, 26,616 violent deaths (89 per 100,000);1752 in 2018, 23,047 violent deaths (81.4 per 100,000);1753 and in 2019, 16,506 violent deaths (60.6 per 100,000).1754 These numbers are not disaggregated by sex or age. The OVV attributes the decrease in violent deaths in recent years to factors unrelated to State measures to combat crime.1755 1005. The reasons behind these high numbers are complex, varied and beyond the scope of the Mission’s investigation. However, analysts have attributed the high violent death rates in Venezuela to a number of factors, including weak rule of law, corruption, inequality, poverty and lack of opportunities.1756 The presence of organized crime in the country may also be contributing to high numbers of killings. According to the investigative organization InSight Crime, there are various armed groups in Venezuela that carry out a range of illegal activities, including illegal mining, extortions, kidnapping and trafficking in drugs and other contraband.1757 People interviewed by the Mission for the cases investigated have also alleged links between security forces and organized crime, as noted further throughout this section. 1744 1745 1746 1747 1748 1749 1750 1751 1752 1753 1754 1755 1756 1757 196 See Annual Report of the Public Prosecutor’s Office 2015, p. 45, available at: https://transparencia.org.ve/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Informe-Anual-2015-fiscalia.pdf. See also Acceso a la Justicia, Informe sobre el Desempeño del Ministerio Público (2000-2018), p. 64. See Annual Report of the Public Prosecutor’s Office 2016, p. 12, available at: https://lortegadiaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/INFORME-ANUAL-2016_web.pdf. Femicide was typified in Venezuela in the reform of Organic Law on the Right of Women to a Life Free from Violence, 25 November 2014, in Official Gazette No. 40548: (“[…] femicide is the homicide of a woman, committed by a man, for reasons strictly linked to her gender”). See, for example: El Entrompe de Falopio, Desde Nosotras: Situacion de los derechos humanos de las mujeres en Venezuela, 2018, pp. 91-94, available at: http://entrompedefalopio.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/11/Desde-Nosotras-Informe-Completo.pdf; Equivalencias en Acción, Women on the Edge: Women’s rights in the face of the worsening complex humanitarian emergency in Venezuela, May 2019, pp. 74-76, available at: https://cepaz.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/09/WOMAN_LIMITE_web_compressed.pdf. The Venezuelan Observatory for Violence works with eight universities around the country to gather information on rates of violent death, using a combined methodology of review of press articles, information obtained from Government sources and surveys. See a description of its methodology at: https://observatoriodeviolencia.org.ve/news/informe-anual-de-violencia-2019/. https://institutolacso.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/INFORME-ANUAL-DE-VIOLENCIA2014.pdf. https://institutolacso.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/INFORME-ANUAL-DE-VIOLENCIA2015.pdf. https://institutolacso.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/INFORME-ANUAL-DE-VIOLENCIA2016.pdf. https://institutolacso.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/INFORME-ANUAL-DE-VIOLENCIA2017.pdf. https://institutolacso.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/INFORME-ANUAL-DE-VIOLENCIA-20181.pdf. https://observatoriodeviolencia.org.ve/news/informe-anual-de-violencia-2019/. This includes the reduction of opportunities for crime resulting from the economic crisis, the suspension of public services and emigration from the country, among others. See https://observatoriodeviolencia.org.ve/news/informe-anual-de-violencia-2019/. See for example, https://observatoriodeviolencia.org.ve/news/informe-anual-de-violencia-2019/; https://www.insightcrime.org/news/brief/caracas-most-violent-city-in-the-world-2015-report/. See InSight Crime, Venezuela: A Mafia State?, p. 5, available at: https://www.insightcrime.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/05/Venezuela-a-Mafia-State-InSight-Crime-2018.pdf.