A surging number of wars and less global co-operation are putting women in dire peril, as numbers living close to conflict zones climb to their highest in three decades, UN Women chief Sima Bahous warned on Monday.
“Today, 676 million women and girls live within reach of deadly conflict, the most since the 1990s,” Ms Bahous told the UN Security Council at a debate marking the 25th anniversary of UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
The landmark resolution, passed in 2000, calls for women’s full participation in building peace and protection from violence.
In a recent report, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres highlighted progress made over the past quarter of a century, which includes more than 100 countries adopting national action plans.
“But gains are fragile and, very worryingly, going in reverse,” Mr Guterres warned. “Around the globe, we see troubling trends in military spending, more armed conflicts, and more shocking brutality against women and girls.”
He said sexual violence has also surged, with a 35 per cent rise in incidents against girls. In some places, they accounted for nearly half of all victims.
“And while women’s organisations remain lifelines for millions in crisis, they are being starved of resources,” Mr Guterres said, quoting a recent survey by the UN, which promotes gender equality globally.
The survey revealed that 90 per cent of local women-led groups in conflict zones are in dire financial straits, with nearly half expected to shut down within six months.
Abuses in Gaza
Human rights lawyer Noura Erakat, who was the second Palestinian woman to brief the UN Security Council since October 7, 2023, delivered a stark account of the toll the conflict has taken on women and girls.
The Palestinian American said that in Gaza, one woman and one girl have been killed every hour for the past 730 days, describing the pattern as part of a broader assault on Palestinian existence.
Ms Erakat detailed how Israeli attacks on the reproductive capacity of Palestinian women and girls “collectively aim to eliminate the possibility of a Palestinian future”.
“The systematic sexual abuse and torture of Palestinians in captivity, including rape of men, women and children, filmed forced nudity, and electrocution of genitalia have resulted in mental and physical trauma that impede an ability to engage in sexual intimacy at all,” she said.
In addition to the trauma of incessant bombing, Ms Erakat said, hunger, disease and attacks on medical centres make it is impossible for women to meet basic needs, let alone exercise their sexual and reproductive rights.
"It is a struggle for Palestinians to survive, let alone conceive in Gaza," she said.
Ms Erakat cautioned that US President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan for the enclave, unveiled last week, must not come at the expense of justice.
The plan calls for an immediate ceasefire once Hamas releases all hostages, the group's disarmament, and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Indirect talks began Monday in Egypt's resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, with mediators shuttling between delegations under tight security.
“Despite the recent enthusiasm to end this war, the terms of the current proposal are setting up Palestinians to live under permanent occupation and siege,” Ms Erakat told the Security Council. “The end of this genocide cannot come at the expense of accountability and justice for its survivors.”
After her briefing to the council, she told The National that the latest US peace proposal “is full of illegalities".
“Everybody is focused on ending the genocide and understandably so,” Ms Erakat said. “But in doing so, they’re taking for granted all the other provisions.
"The proposal as it stands is proposing colonisation, permanent occupation, a tighter siege, and the denial of Palestinian self-determination. It offers no accountability for genocide and would effectively whitewash it, as if it never happened.”
She said the plan would hold only the Palestinian militant group Hamas accountable through demilitarisation and a transfer of power, while ignoring Israeli violations in Gaza.
“All the terms of the proposal as is are illegal. So when you ask about the continuation of violence in the West Bank, I would say it’s a continuation, and a proliferation, of violence, extending even to Palestinians globally,” Ms Erakat said.
“The only reason there is support for it is because the United States would finally impose pressure on Israel to stop the genocide … pressure it always had the power to exert.”
