Conflict-related sexual violence up sharply worldwide in 2025: UN report

Verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence more than doubled globally in 2025 over the previous year, according to a UN report released on Friday, reported Xinhua. Cases of conflict-related sexual violence verified by the United Nations in 2025 rose sharply from 2024, marked by extreme brutality, and overwhelmingly targeted women and girls, said the annual report of the UN secretary-general. A total of 9,788 cases of conflict-related sexual violence were documented in 2025, more than doubling the figure from 2024 (with 4,617 cases), according to the report, which was submitted to the Security Council on Thursday and was made available to the press on Friday. The report notes that the cases of conflict-related sexual violence should be understood not as the full picture, as violations remained largely unseen and underreported when ongoing conflict, insecurity, and restrictions on humanitarian access increasingly obstructed reporting and documentation, which was further undermined by mission drawdowns and budget cuts in which specialized capacity on gender and women's protection were often the first to be reduced. A total of 77 parties, including state and non-state actors, are listed for cases of conflict-related sexual violence in this 17th annual report, which covers 21 conflict-affected countries for which information verified by the United Nations was available. Two new state actors are listed: the Israeli armed and security forces, and the Russian armed and security forces. Three new non-state actors operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are listed in this report. The report says that in 2025, documented cases of sexual violence as a tactic of war, torture, terrorism and political repression surged, while multiple and overlapping political, security and humanitarian crises worsened. Civilians were targeted with rape, gang rape, abductions and sexual slavery by state and non-state actors. Sexual violence and exploitation in the context of abduction and trafficking in persons continued to be observed as a tactic of terrorism. Displaced, refugee and migrant women and girls faced elevated risks of sexual violence. Sexual violence was perpetrated in detention in multiple settings, such as in Israel and the State of Palestine, Russia and Ukraine, according to the report. Impunity for conflict-related sexual violence persisted in 2025. Overall, the level of compliance by parties to conflict with applicable international norms remained low. Over 65 percent of the parties listed in the annex to the present report are persistent perpetrators, appearing in the annex for five or more years without taking remedial or corrective action, according to the report.