By Matik Kueth
More than 600 million women and girls have been impacted by wars around the world, with a 50 percent increase from a decade ago, according to the United Nations.
In a newly released report, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that “generational gains in women’s rights hang in the balance around the world,” that progress made for women over the decades is disappearing, stressing that the current data and findings show record levels of armed conflict and violence.
He noted that as the backlash against women’s rights and gender equality escalates, women and girls feel as though the world has forgotten them.
“The transformative potential of women’s leadership and inclusion in the pursuit of peace” is being undercut with power and decision-making on peace and security matters overwhelmingly in the hands of men,” Guterres said.
Guterres was evaluating the status of a Security Council resolution, passed on October 31, 2000, calling for women to have equal representation in peace talks, a goal that is still as far off as gender equality.
Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General [Photo – Courtesy]
According to the report, the percentage of women killed in armed conflicts doubled in 2023 compared to the previous year; the number of girls impacted by grave violations in wars climbed by 35 percent; and the number of UN-verified cases of sexual violence related to hostilities increased by 50 percent.
However, during a two-day U.N. Security Council meeting last week, Simba Bahous, head of UN Women, the UN agency that promotes gender equality, argued that women’s views were not being acknowledged in the pursuit of peace.
She highlighted the anxieties of millions of Afghan women and girls who are denied an education and a future, the displaced women in Gaza who are “waiting for death,”; the sexually assaulted women in Sudan, and the dwindling hopes of women in South Sudan, Syria, Haiti, Congo, Myanmar, Yemen, and the Sahel region of Africa.
According to Bahous, 612 million war-affected women and girls question whether the world has already forgotten about them or whether they have been forgotten by a global community overtaken by crises that are becoming more frequent, severe, and urgent.
“One in two women and girls in conflict-affected settings are facing moderate to severe food insecurity, 61 percent of all maternal mortality is concentrated in 35 conflict-affected countries,” she stated. “The percentage of women in peace negotiations has not improved over the last decade: under 10% on average in all processes, and under 20% in processes led or supported by the United Nations.”