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STORY: UN / SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN CONFLICT
TRT: O2:24
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 19 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UN Headquarters
19 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, room meeting
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Chloe Marnay-Baszanger, Chief, Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations:
“In 2024 sexual violence against children had even increased by a shocking 35 percent, with incidents of gang rape rising dramatically. These violations are neither isolated nor confined to a handful of contexts. They're global in scale and demand a response centered on the rights, needs, and dignity of survivors and community affected.”
4. Wide shot, room meeting
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Chloe Marnay-Baszanger, Chief, Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations:
“At the same time, the harsh reality is that at a time when violations are rising, humanitarian needs are mounting, funding for service provision is falling dramatically. This is leading to major gaps in essential services and support mechanism. Every dollar diverted is a child left vulnerable. Every funding cut is a lifeline severed.”
6. Wide shot, room meeting
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Chloe Marnay-Baszanger, Chief, Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations:
“I urge you to renew your commitment, both in action and funding. The time for words is past. The time for action is now. Change is not achieved in resolutions alone. It is materialized through accessible and quality child-friendly support in conflict areas. It is achieved when no military or political leader is above the law and no child is beneath the scope of its protection.”
8. Wide shot, room meeting
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Vanessa Frazier, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and Under-Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The recent verified numbers of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children are harrowing. In 2025, 1779 children were victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence across situations in the children and armed conflict agenda. 98.5 of the victims and survivors were girls. Across the 22 country situations and one regional situation covered by the CAAC mandate the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and Haiti were the context with the most verified incidents.”
10. Wide shot, room meeting
A top UN official said, “Change is not achieved in resolutions alone. It is materialized through accessible and quality child-friendly support in conflict areas. It is achieved when no military or political leader is above the law and no child is beneath the scope of its protection.”
Today (19 Jun) an event to commemorate the 12th official observance of the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict was held in New York.
Addressing the event on behalf of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Under-Secretary-General, Pramila Patten, Chloe Marnay-Baszanger, Chief of the UN Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, said, “In 2024 sexual violence against children had even increased by a shocking 35 percent, with incidents of gang rape rising dramatically. These violations are neither isolated nor confined to a handful of contexts. They're global in scale and demand a response centered on the rights, needs, and dignity of survivors and community affected.”
At the same time, she highlighted, “the harsh reality is that at a time when violations are rising, humanitarian needs are mounting, funding for service provision is falling dramatically. This is leading to major gaps in essential services and support mechanism. Every dollar diverted is a child left vulnerable. Every funding cut is a lifeline severed.”
She then urged Member States “to renew your commitment, both in action and funding. The time for words is past. The time for action is now. Change is not achieved in resolutions alone. It is materialized through accessible and quality child-friendly support in conflict areas. It is achieved when no military or political leader is above the law and no child is beneath the scope of its protection.”
Vanessa Frazier, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and Under-Secretary-General, said, “The recent verified numbers of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children are harrowing. In 2025, 1779 children were victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence across situations in the children and armed conflict agenda. 98.5 of the victims and survivors were girls. Across the 22 country situations and one regional situation covered by the CAAC mandate the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and Haiti were the context with the most verified incidents.”
Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) against children constitutes one of the most serious and pervasive violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
It is also one of the six grave violations against children as identified by the UN Security Council (S/RES/1261,1999).
In situations of armed conflict and political instability across the globe, girls and boys are acutely vulnerable to sexual violence perpetrated by state and non-State actors, including armed forces, militias, groups designated as terrorist by the United Nations, and other parties to conflict.
These crimes include rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, trafficking, sexual exploitation, enforced nudity, sexualized torture, and other forms of sexual violence, inflicting profound physical and psychological harm, disrupting development and education, and often triggering lifelong trauma.
CRSV is neither accidental nor incidental. It is frequently employed deliberately as a tactic of war, terror, repression, and control.
Sexual violence is used to destroy families, fracture communities, and destabilize social cohesion, with effects that reverberate across generations.
Children are targeted to punish communities, extract information, force displacement, generate revenue through trafficking and exploitation, or incentivize recruitment within armed groups.
The use of sexual violence against children thus serves strategic, political, military, and economic objectives within many conflicts, a trend underscored by the dramatic 35 percent increase in reported cases of CRSV 1 against children in 2024-2025.
The impact of CRSV on children is profound and long-lasting. They may face immediate physical and psychological harm, including severe injuries, trauma, unwanted pregnancies, exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, and risk of death.
Over the longer term, children experience stigmatization, social exclusion, disruption of education, loss of family support, and heightened vulnerability to re-recruitment, re-victimization, or exploitation.
These harms extend beyond the individual child to their caregivers - most often women, who may be themselves survivors of violence including CRSV - and who shoulder the increased burden of care in the face of ruptured healthcare systems, shattered civilian infrastructure, and the targeting of, or denial of access to, frontline humanitarian actors and their services.
As formal services collapse or become inaccessible, caregivers are forced to absorb responsibilities that should be met by functioning systems and institutions.
This crushing care burden exposes countless conflict-affected women to additional economic hardship, psychological strain, and social isolation, while simultaneously weakening community resilience. Restoring and enhancing systems of care - including healthcare, psychosocial support, and community-based protection - is therefore essential not only for child survivors, but also for the empowerment and wellbeing of caregivers and affected communities, who play a central role in recovery, reintegration and long-term healing.
Despite the existence of a strong normative and legal framework - including multiple UN Security Council resolutions on conflict-related sexual violence and children and armed conflict - CRSV against children remains significantly under-reported and under-addressed.
Structural barriers such as insecurity, lack of access to services, fear of retaliation, stigma, and distrust in institutions prevent children and their caregivers from seeking help. Boys, adolescents, and children subjected to sexualized torture in detention face particular invisibility, as harmful stereotypes often deny or minimize their victimization.
Impunity remains a central driver of these crimes, with perpetrators facing few, if any, consequences, while survivors continue to bear the brunt of suffering, stigma and shame. Weak justice systems and peace processes that marginalize or silence survivors further entrench cycles of violence. When sexual violence against children is not confronted directly and early, it undermines prospects for sustainable peace, reconciliation, the restoration of social cohesion, and recovery.
Empowering women, caregivers, and affected communities through meaningful participation, equitable resourcing, and the rebuilding of formal systems of care, is indispensable to breaking these cycles and ensuring that responses to CRSV are sustainable, survivor-centered, and transformative. The resilience of survivors, caregivers, and communities shows that change is possible.
By restoring systems of care and ensuring caregivers and affected communities are empowered to lead the response, we can build pathways to healing, justice, and a safer future for every child. In line with General Assembly Resolution 69/293 of 2015, an event will be held to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict.
This International Day is commemorated every year, on or around 19 June, which marks the date of the unanimous adoption of the first Security Council resolution to recognize conflict-related sexual violence as a tactic of war and a threat to international peace and security (S/RES/1820 of 2008).
The purpose of this event is to stand in solidarity with child survivors - and all survivors of conflict-related sexual violence - to spark hope as we raise our voices to say: “#EndRapeInWar”
