The 33-year-old marathon runner, who lived and trained in northwestern Kenya, recently competed in the Olympic Games in Paris.
During a disagreement on Sunday, Ms Cheptegei’s boyfriend doused her with petrol and set her on fire, causing burns to 80 percent of her body, media reports said.
A global problem
“Today we join the UN Population Fund (UN-FPA) And UN Women in its strong condemnation of her violent murder,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the Secretary-General, told journalists in New York.
Mr Dujarric used his daily press conference to draw attention to this “tragic death”, saying it “illustrates a much larger problem that is too often ignored.”
Citing figures from UN Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), he said that on average every 11 minutes, a woman or girl is murdered by a partner or family member somewhere in the world.
“We obviously think the actual numbers are much higher,” he said.
“So, IIf this briefing lasts half an hour, an average of three women will have been victims of femicide while we are talking.”
‘Another world is possible’
Mr Dujarric said that gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most prevalent forms of human rights violations in the world and should be treated as such.
“As the Secretary-General once said, we still live in a male-dominated culture that makes women vulnerable by denying them equality in dignity and rights. We all pay the price: our societies are less peaceful, our economies less prosperous, and our world less just. But another world is possible,” he concluded.
End gender-based violence
The head of the UN agency that leads global efforts to end AIDS went to social media to pronounce her condemnation.
UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, who is from Uganda, called on everyone to “rise up and end GBV,” saying that “silence is complicity.”
Mourning the loss of “our national Olympic star”, 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 the education of her nieces and nephews”.
