War Affects Over 600 Million Women: UN Report

News Desk

United Nations: Women are bearing an increasingly heavy burden of the world’s expanding conflicts while remaining largely excluded from the negotiations aimed at ending them, the United Nations has warned, calling for greater female participation in peace processes and stronger protection for women and girls.

The warning comes in the UN Secretary-General’s 2025 Report on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), released as the international community marks the 25th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325, which formally recognized the importance of women’s participation in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and post-war recovery.

The report says 676 million women now live within 50 kilometres of deadly conflict, the highest figure recorded since the 1990s. At the same time, civilian deaths among women and children have quadrupled compared with the previous two-year period, while conflict-related sexual violence has increased by 87 percent.

UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous said women and girls are increasingly being exposed to violence while being denied meaningful influence over decisions that shape their future.

“Women and girls are being killed in record numbers, shut out of peace tables, and left unprotected as wars multiply,” Bahous said, stressing the need for greater political power, protection and equal participation.

The UN report also points to a persistent gap between women’s role in communities affected by conflict and their representation in formal peace negotiations.

Between 2020 and 2024, women made up just 7 percent of peace negotiators worldwide. Nearly 90 percent of negotiation tracks included no women at all. Women accounted for an average of 14 percent of mediators, while around two-thirds of mediation efforts had no female participation.

The UN says the exclusion comes despite growing evidence that women’s involvement can strengthen peace efforts. Experiences in countries including Colombia, Liberia and the Philippines have demonstrated that greater female participation can improve the prospects of durable peace agreements.

Women have also played important roles in resolving practical disputes during conflicts. In Yemen, for instance, women leaders were involved in negotiations that secured access to vital natural resources during efforts to end the country’s long-running civil war.

Despite such examples, funding remains a major obstacle. The report says many women-led organizations operating in conflict zones are being forced to reduce their activities or shut down altogether because of inadequate financial support.

The concerns come as the UN marks a quarter-century of its Women, Peace and Security agenda. During an open debate earlier this month, Secretary-General António Guterres warned that progress achieved over the past 25 years is increasingly at risk.

“Gains are fragile and, very worryingly, going in reverse,” Guterres said.

Presenting the report, UN Women Deputy Executive Director Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda said the sharp increase in civilian casualties reflected the failure to deliver on longstanding commitments to protect women and girls.

Sarah Hendriks, Director of the UN Women Policy Division, warned that continued setbacks could reverse decades of progress on women’s rights. She called for binding targets and quotas to increase women’s participation in peace processes, stronger accountability for gender-based crimes and sustained financial support for women-led organizations.

The UN report ultimately argues that women should not be viewed solely as victims of conflict. Their participation, it says, is central to building lasting peace, speeding recovery and creating more resilient societies.