With the world experiencing the highest number of active conflicts since 1946, the situation is creating unprecedented risks and suffering for women and girls, according to a new UN report.<\/p>\n
The 2025 UN Secretary-General\u2019s report on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) warns that 676 million women now live within 50 kilometers of deadly conflict, the highest level since the 1990s. Civilian casualties among women and children quadrupled compared to the previous two-year period, and conflict-related sexual violence increased by 87 per cent in two years.<\/p>\n
The report highlights the role that women play as peacemakers, describes how conflict affects women overall, and outlines the UN Secretary-General\u2019s goals for the key agenda.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen and girls are being killed in record numbers, shut out of peace tables, and left unprotected as wars multiply. Women do not need more promises, they need power, protection, and equal participation,\u201d Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, said in her comments on the report.<\/p>\n
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the WPS agenda and Security Council resolution 1325, a landmark decision adopted by the international community at the turn of the century, affirming the importance of women\u2019s participation in conflict prevention and peace processes.<\/p>\n
Since its adoption, there has been a growing consensus supported by real world examples \u2013 from Colombia to Liberia and the Philippines \u2013 that women\u2019s participation makes peace agreements more likely and durable, according to the report.<\/p>\n
But problems persist. Implementation of WPS goals requires funding, and since last year\u2019s report, women-led organizations are in need more funding as conflict and crisis put them at risk.<\/p>\n
Women can play an instrumental role in mediating conflict. As part of negotiations to finally end Yemen\u2019s long civil war, women leaders managed to negotiate access to natural resources.<\/p>\n
Data collected from 2020-2024 found that women\u2019s representation as negotiators, mediators and signatories in peace processes is far below the target set by the UN.<\/p>\n
Last year, women made up only seven per cent of negotiators on average worldwide, and nearly nine out of ten negotiation tracks included no women negotiators at all, said the report.<\/p>\n
Women were slightly more represented in mediation roles, averaging 14 per cent but still, two-thirds of mediation efforts did not include women.<\/p>\n
In the annual open debate on the WPS agenda earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres warned that while progress has been made over the past quarter century, \u201cgains are fragile and \u2013 very worryingly \u2013 going in reverse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Presenting the report on Monday, UN Women Deputy Executive Director Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda stressed that while civilian casualties among women and children quadrupled compared to the previous two-year period \u2013 many women\u2019s organizations working on the frontlines are scaling down or closing due to lack of funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese numbers tell a story, one of unfulfilled promises,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sarah Hendriks, the agency\u2019s Policy Division Director, warned that if the current trend continues, progress made on women\u2019s rights over the past two decades risks being erased.<\/p>\n
She reiterated the report\u2019s call for binding targets and quotas for women\u2019s participation, accountability for gender-based crimes and violence in conflict and other recommendations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence is clear: when women lead and when their organizations are resourced, peace is more possible, recovery is faster, and societies are stronger,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the world experiencing the highest number of active conflicts since 1946, the situation is creating unprecedented risks and suffering for women and girls, according to a new UN report. The 2025 UN Secretary-General\u2019s report on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) warns that 676 million women now live within 50 kilometers of deadly conflict, the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":88467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88468,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88455\/revisions\/88468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}