蘑菇视频

Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,

I am honored to join this 8^th capital-level meeting of the Women, Peace and Security Focal Points Network. I commend the governments of Italy and the Philippines for being steadfast champions of this cause, and for convening us to co-create solutions at an extremely critical time for the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

My mandate, as Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, was built on the foundational platform of resolution 1325, which forever changed the face of peace and security policy 鈥� affirming that no conflict or crisis is gender neutral, and no effective response can be gender-blind.

Since the turn of the century, the Security Council has increasingly called for women鈥檚 meaningful participation and leadership in all conflict prevention, recovery and peacebuilding efforts. Available evidence shows how women鈥檚 participation in peace-building and formal mediation processes leads to more sustainable results for long-term peace and security.

However, in order to safeguard women鈥檚 role in political and peace processes, we must also redouble our efforts to ensure their protection against all violations, including conflict-related sexual violence. After all, effective protection from sexual violence is an enabler of women鈥檚 participation and leadership.

My mandate was a specific response to a brutal reality of modern war: the use of sexual violence as a tactic of war, terror, torture and political repression. Like bullets, bombs and blades, sexual violence attacks the lives and livelihoods of innocent civilians, in a manner that is not collateral, but often calculated.

In establishing this mandate, the Security Council affirmed that sexual violence constitutes a听legitimate threat to international peace and security and that even in the midst of war, it is preventable, not inevitable.

While dramatic normative, institutional, and operational progress has been made, these gains are now imperiled by political pushbacks and unprecedented humanitarian access and resource constraints.

We meet at this critical period of global turbulence. Armed conflicts are at record levels since World War II; the respect for international law is fading; global military spending continues its upward trajectory, reaching a record $2.7 trillion, driven by escalating geopolitical tensions; humanitarian work is severely disrupted, due to both funding reductions and limitations in access and security for humanitarian workers in conflict zones. At the same time, civic space is shrinking, displacement rates are rising, poverty and food insecurity are increasingly feminized, democracy is in retreat, and conflicts are turning back the clock on women鈥檚 rights.

This context is unfolding at a moment when verified cases of CRSV are rising sharply in multiple conflict settings. 听With the widening scope of warfare globally, my remit has continued to expand, now covering 21 situations of concern.

Each year, we document the disproportionate impact of wartime sexual violence on women and girls, who consistently account for over 90 percent of 蘑菇视频-verified cases.

The 2025 annual report of the Secretary-General on conflict-related sexual violence, published on 1 June, shows a staggering increase of over 100% from the previous year, with 9,788 cases documented- a figure that remains indicative, rather than comprehensive, given chronic underreporting.

Civilians were targeted with rape, gang rape, abductions and sexual slavery by both State and non-State actors. The report documents extreme physical violence, often accompanying sexual violence, including the killing of victims after rape and incidents of suicide among victims.

The report lists 77 parties credibly suspected of being implicated in patterns of conflict-related sexual violence, in its annex with the vast majority of listed parties being non-State actors (62). Three new non-State actors operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were listed. Two State actors have also been listed, namely the Israeli armed and security forces which includes the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Prison Service, and the border police Counter-Terrorism Unit. The other newly listed party is the Russian armed and security forces which include the Federal Penitentiary Service, the Russian armed forces and the Federal Security Service.

Significant trends noted in the report include:

• Non-State armed groups, including organized criminal groups, using sexual violence as a tactic to gain territorial control, including over lucrative natural resource sites, with abductions, forced marriage, trafficking and kidnapping, as part of the strategic objectives and ideology of certain groups.
• In detention settings, patterns of conflict-related sexual violence perpetrated mainly against men and boys, as a form of torture used to humiliate and extract information, as in Libya, Myanmar, Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ukraine, the Russian Federation, and Yemen.
• Displaced and refugee women and girls experienced heightened risks of sexual violence in conflict settings exacerbated in remote and border areas.
• The illicit proliferation and widespread availability of small arms and ammunition directly facilitated and fueled sexual violence.
• Lastly, the complex array of battlefield actors implicated in patterns of sexual violence- from militias to proxy forces, mercenaries, subcontractors, and private military and security companies, complicated attribution and undermined accountability.

We must not lose sight of the findings of the report. These violations are neither isolated nor confined to a handful of contexts. They are global in scale, devastating in impact and demand a response centred on the rights, needs, and dignity of victims and survivors and communities affected.

Today, more women than ever before live in proximity to deadly conflicts that they neither chose to start nor had the power to prevent 鈥� some 676 million women now live within 50 kilometers of active conflict.

While the number of verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence, continue to increase dramatically, lifesaving programs are being defunded, with women鈥檚 frontline organizations facing catastrophic cuts at the very moment they are needed most, going from underfunded to unfunded. 听We are told that these cuts to women鈥檚 lifelines are due to a lack of resources, yet patriarchal power structures are investing more in the machinery of warfare than the architecture of peace.

Conflict-related sexual violence is not a lesser crime. Yet, the costs of lawlessness are starkly evident in terms of failures of justice and impunity for crimes of sexual violence in conflict.

While States bear the legal responsibility to end impunity and to prosecute all those responsible for crimes of conflict-related sexual violence, very few perpetrators are brought to justice. Impunity remains the norm and justice the rare exception. While the consistent, rigorous prosecution of these crimes can translate into prevention and deterrence, lack of political will to enforce applicable law sends the opposite signal, emboldening perpetrators and demoralizing survivors, by implying it is futile, and even dangerous, to report.

Important lessons drawn over the past years indicate that the justice chain is only as strong as its weakest link. It functions as a system, or not at all. A safe and supportive environment is foundational to enabling survivors to come forward and report these historically hidden crimes.

This entails meeting their basic needs such as safe shelter, medical care, sexual and reproductive healthcare, trauma counselling, and psychosocial support, as well as livelihood and socioeconomic reintegration assistance, in the face of social stigma, family and community rejection, and often profound personal shame. These holistic services are critical to breaking the chains of silence and denial that have sentenced survivors to life-long trauma, fear, and ostracism, while the perpetrators walk free.

 

Excellencies, distinguished participants,

The world has strayed too far from the founding vision of resolution 1325. The reality is stark, but silence and inaction are not an option. Over the past 17 years, the elevation of the issue of conflict-related sexual violence to the attention of the Security Council has created important tools for prevention, compliance and deterrence.

Now we must defend these established norms. We must strengthen the use of survivor centered approaches and ensure access to justice, services, reparations for survivors, and protection for women human rights defenders. We must protect the monitoring and reporting mandate, including the role of Women鈥檚 Protection Advisers in the field. We must not lose this progress.

In an environment of growing political pushbacks on human rights and gender equality, my mandate faces unprecedented challenges, to shed light on the ongoing incidents, patterns and trends of sexual violence in conflict zones. At this crucial moment, I urge all Women, Peace and Security champions present to actively lend their political support to this cause 鈥� including during the upcoming Security Council鈥檚 annual Open Debate on conflict-related sexual violence, which will take place on 8 July, in New York.

We have a robust normative framework, an adequate institutional architecture established by the Security Council, including the 蘑菇视频 Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict network, to deliver coordinated, survivor-centered support to survivors and the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law 听to听 support national authorities to strengthen rule of law institutions and advance accountability for conflict-related sexual violence.

What is required now is unwavering political resolve and sustained, predictable financing commensurate with the scale of the challenge before us.听

Even after the horrors and heartache I have witnessed during nine years at the helm of this mandate, I remain hopeful. Survivors and activists, including youth groups, remain resilient and continue to put their faith in the United Nations and the rules-based international order.

We must justify their belief, maintain their trust, and prove them right by ensuring that women and younger generations are able to not only survive the conflict, but shape the peace.

Ending conflict鈥憆elated sexual violence and empowering women and young people are not parallel struggles鈥攖hey are the same fight. When we enhance protection from the brutality of sexual violence, we protect the very possibility of peace, and we build societies where such violence can no longer take root.

As Member States and women peace and security champions, you have built and supported the architecture of this agenda. My mandate was created to speak truth to power, and its work has remained principled and based on evidence, rigorously collected by the United Nations. You have funded the efforts and provided political support to address and prevent sexual violence. This mandate reflects your legacy, and it is now yours to protect.

Thank you,

 

 

听