GENEVA, Jun 24, CMC – The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Türk, says gender-based violence is rising, especially in conflict, something which is a “shameless repudiation of the basic rules of warfare.
“We are not meeting the minimum requirement to prevent women from being silenced, and support their participation and leadership in…building peace,” Türk said.
The UN Security Council 25 years ago passed a resolution which affirmed the vital role that women play in preventing and resolving conflict and emphasized the importance of ending impunity for sexual violence in and around conflict.
Since then, other resolutions have reinforced these principles and UN agencies and their partners have worked to implement them. While this work has led to trials which held perpetrators accountable, gender-based violence is becoming more, not less, prevalent.
Türk’s office has documented thousands of horrific cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Israel, and the occupied Palestine Territory, Haiti, Sudan, Ukraine and many other conflict-affected areas.
“Fighters are being encouraged or instructed to victimize women, often as a deliberate weapon of warfare – to terrorize communities and force them to flee; and to silence the voices of women who speak out against war-mongering, and seek to build peace,” he said.
Funding and aid cuts are also impeding the efforts of humanitarians and human rights agencies, impeding the provision of essential medical and psychosocial support for affected women and girls.
Türk noted that the failure to provide these essential services has long-term impacts on survivors and “leaves young girls and women alone, outcast and traumatised.”
CMC/hj/ir/2025