Author of the Project

My name is Alicja Serafin. I name, map and count femicides in Poland. I run Femicide in Poland Project.

Alicja serafin

I believe that thanks to cooperation between science, femtech sector and justice authorities we can create reliable databases on femicide numbers in our country. This is the only way to bridge the femicide data gap.

My many years of research confirmed that there is a space between femicidal violence and femicide where we can counteract the latter act. This aspect is extremely important in terms of analyzing criminal data. It means that we can find high-risk factors and implement security measures earlier that will prevent femicide from occurring.

Poland can no longer remain a white spot in European and international statistics on femicide. We are obligated to gather femicide and GBV data by the article 11 of the CoE Istanbul Convention and the EU Directive on Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (2024/1385). Therefore, following the UN’s call: Let’s name, count, and prevent femicides together!

Who I am?

Professionally I’m a lawyer, linguist, Latin Americanist, and certified Spanish translator and interpreter with license in Poland and Spain. In 2017-2018, as a scholarship holder from the University of Seville, I completed an internship at the Spanish courts for violence against women in Seville.

In 2021, I worked as Project Coordinator and participated in the establishment of the Polish Observatory on Femicides, that operated at the Women’s Rights Center (link). I also co-edited a special issue of the journal “Prawo i Płeć” (Law and Gender) devoted to femicide watches around the world.

In 2024, I founded the Femicide in Poland project. The project is the first Polish think-tank dedicated to the phenomenon of femicides based on gender. I am the author of the first report on femicide in Poland, “Femicide in Poland. Report for 2017-2023.” I regularly share my knowledge about femicides and the way we can start combating them at workshops, academic conferences in Poland and abroad (recently in Romania, Spain, the UK, Greece, and the US), and at international forums.

I have been researching femicide since 2016. Since 2017, I have been conducting criminal and criminological research on femicides in Poland and Spain. This research forms a part of my doctoral dissertation, which I wrote and submitted to the Scientific Council of the Discipline of Legal Sciences at the University of Warsaw, receiving a positive supervisor opinion in April 2025 at the Faculty of Law, University of Warsaw.

In July 2025, I participated as an expert from the 3rd sector in the “Global meeting on measuring gender-related killings of women and girls (femicides / feminicides), organized by the UN  Vienna. Due to the lack of government representation, I was the only Polish representative in the room. I presented my own PhD project of the Polish Femicide Map at the forum and delivered a lecture entitled “Data Feminism – how femicide data collection can help to prevent GBV”. See: UN Report on Global Meeting on Measuring Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls

Latest and the upcoming presentations or talks:

  1.  A. Serafin „Problem kobietobójstwa w Polsce” Sesja plenarna XVII Kongres Kobiet Równość i Bezpieczeństwo 6-7 września 2025 Międzynarodowe Centrum Kongresowe Katowice
  2. A. Serafin „Quod obstat viae fit via” – femicide as the separate gender-based homicide – review of international framework in the view of the ECHR and IACHR case law” 25 Annual Conference of European Criminological Society EUROCRIM 2025 3-6.09.2025 Uniwersytet Panteion w Atenach Grecja
  3. A. Serafin „Data Feminism – how femicide data collection can help to prevent GBV. Perspective from Femicide in Poland” Global meeting on measuring gender-related killings of women and girls (femicides / feminicides) 15-17.07.2025 UN Women & UNODC Vienna
  4. A. Serafin „Femicide in Poland Project – case study results and de lege ferenda proposals for its legal recognition” Międzynarodowa Konferencja Brytyjskiego Towarzystwa Kryminologicznego, 1-4.07.2025 University of Portsmouth, Wielka Brytania
  5. A. Serafin Femicide in Poland Project – Bridging the Polish Femicide Data Gap Women in Tech Summit Warszawa 4-5.06.2025
  6. A. Serafin „ Femi(ni)cide concept revisited – the role of the Inter-american Court of Human Rights and Belem do Para Convention in building legal framework for international gender-based violence prevention” International Conference Women in European and International Criminal Law 20-21.02.2025 Wydział Prawa, Uniwersytet Jagielloński (zoom)
  7. A. Serafin „Feminicidio en Polonia. Informe de 2017-2023 – estudio de casos y resultados de investigación” Congreso Internacional sobre violencia de género que sufren las mujeres: un problema sin fronteras 5-7.02.2025 Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Cádiz, Hiszpania
  8.  A. Serafin „Femicide in Poland Project. Report for 2017-2023. Case study results” Annual Conference of European Criminological Society EUROCRIM 11-14.09.2024 Uniwersytet Bukaresztański w Rumunii