The 33-year-old marathon runner lives and trains in north-west Kenya and competed in the recent Olympic Games in Paris.
During a disagreement on Sunday, Ms Cheptegei’s boyfriend doused her in petrol and set her on fire, leaving her with burns to 80% of her body, media reports said.
A global problem
“Today we join the United Nations Population Fund (United Nations Population Fund) And United Nations Women in strongly condemning her violent murder,” Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, speak journalists in New York.
Mr Dujarric used his daily press briefing to focus attention on the “tragic death”, saying it “illustrates a much larger but often overlooked problem”.
Citing figures from UN Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), he said that on average every 11 minutes, a woman or girl is murdered by an intimate partner or family member somewhere in the world.
“Of course, we think the actual number is much higher,” he said.
“So IIf this press conference lasts half an hour, an average of three women will be victims of femicide while we are speaking.“ .
‘Another world is possible’
Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world and needs to be treated as such, said Mr. Dujarric.
“As the Secretary-General has said, we still live in a male-dominated culture that makes women vulnerable by denying them equal dignity and rights. We all pay the price: our societies are less peaceful, our economies less prosperous and our world less just. But a different world is possible,” he concluded.
End gender-based violence
Head of UN agency leading global efforts to end AIDS posted on social media to speak out in condemnation.
UNAIDS Executive director Winnie Byanyima, from Uganda, called on people to “stand up and end GBV”, declaring that “silence is complicity”.
In mourning the loss of the “national star Olympian”, she also condemned “the culture of male dominance and tolerance of violence against women, men and children”.
In a separate post, Ms Byanyima recalled that the athlete ran “to feed her children, take care of her parents and pay for her grandchildren’s school fees”.
