Women and Peace and Security - Security Council, 9981st meeting

Rise in conflicts, food insecurity putting women, girls worldwide at increasing risk of sexual violence, Special Representative warns Security Council.

• Categories: Meetings & Events / Security Council
• Video Length: 03:11:49
• Production Date: 19 August 2025
• Asset Language: Arabic; English; French; Russian; Spanish; Chinese; Original
• Personal Subject: PRAMILA PATTEN
• Subject Topical: HEALTH CARE; PEACE AND SECURITY; SANCTIONS; WOMEN; WOMEN'S RIGHTS; GIRLS; ACCOUNTABILITY; GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE; FOOD SECURITY; TERRITORIES OCCUPIED BY ISRAEL; ARMED GROUPS; SEXUAL VIOLENCE; CONFLICT; RAPE VICTIMS
• Geographic Subject: ISRAEL; SUDAN; UKRAINE; PALESTINE; GAZA; RUSSIAN FEDERATION
• MAMS Id: 3438400
• Parent Id: 3437476
• Alternate Title: MTG SC 9881 WOMEN PEACE SECURITY 19 AUG 2025 AM PART 1

Description

Women and girls face escalating risks of sexual violence, driven by intensifying conflict, deepening food insecurity and drawdowns of UN peace operations, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, warning of the devastating impact of sharply reduced humanitarian assistance.

“What future do we expect to build on the broken bodies and broken dreams of abused women and girls,” asked Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, during the Council’s day-long debate on the subject. Amid mounting needs, women’s front-line organizations are going “from underfunded to unfunded”. “We are told there is no money for life-saving aid, even as military expenditure soars and the world spends more in 24 hours on arms than it does in a year on addressing gender-based violence in conflict,” she stressed.

Citing examples, she said that, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, clinics are being forced to turn away survivors due to a lack of basic post-rape care, she said. In South Sudan, women returning home from displacement camps are in desperate need of assistance to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. And in Sudan, Ukraine, northern Ethiopia and Gaza, healthcare systems have been decimated, and humanitarian organizations forced to do “more and more with less and less”.

“We often speak of ‘survivors', but let us not forget the women in Darfur who have committed suicide, rather than face the near certainty of rape by armed men,” she continued. The threat, terror and torment of wartime sexual violence is something that many do not survive, she said, pointing to documented cases of family members being murdered for defending their loved ones, or women being killed after rape, with a level of cruelty “beyond comprehension”.

Adoption of the agenda

• Women and peace and security
• Conflict-related sexual violence
• S/2025/389, S/2025/499

Related Sites and Documents

UN Meetings Coverage

S/2025/389

S/2025/499

S/PV.9881