UN Secretary-General: 2025 report on Women, Peace and Security published, outlining an escalation of violence and threats

Issued in September 2025, the UN Secretary-General report on women, peace and security warns of the elevated number, 676 million, of women who live within 50 kilometers of life-threatening armed conflicts. The close vicinity of such a high number of women contributes to the elevated number of civilian casualties and conflict-related sexual violence. Indeed, cases of sexual violence in such contexts has increased by 87% in 2 years, while the number of casualties among women and children has quadrupled.

To this day, we have the largest number of active conflicts around the world since 1946, posing great risks, and creating unprecedented suffering for women and girls. The report warns that this suffering risks unraveling two decades of progress.

While it has been proven that women’s participation in peace making policies makes peace more durable, women remain largely excluded from the decision-making processes. Indeed, Resolution 1325 of the year 2000 represents to this day a landmark resolution on women, peace and security. The Security Council of the United Nations adopted this resolution in order to reaffirm the important role that women play in prevention and resolution of armed conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction. This being said, in 2024, 9 out of 10 peace processes did not present any female negotiators. Indeed women made up only 7% of negotiators and 14% of mediators globally.

The report stresses the need for reliable and accurate data, the need for financial aid to front-line women’s groups in conflict zones, ways to document human rights violations in conflict-affected areas and increase the participation of women in conflict prevention and resolution processes.