UN report: women and girls now one in four civilians killed in conflict, double their 2021 share

Women and girls made up one in four of the more than 37,000 civilians killed in armed conflict last year, double their share in 2021, according to the UN Secretary-General’s annual report on Women, Peace and Security, presented at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday, UN News reported.

The report estimates that at least 25 women and girls are killed every day in conflict settings. It also says some 750 million women and girls now live within 50 kilometres of an active conflict, 40 million more than in 2024 and the highest number since 1990.

Sexual violence and health

The United Nations verified 9,788 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2025, more than twice the number a year earlier and almost four times the 2022 figure. In Haiti, reported cases rose by 163 per cent. The report also finds that a woman giving birth in a conflict-affected country is five times more likely to die of maternal causes than one in a stable country.

For Gaza, the report points to the destruction of hospitals and maternity facilities and the collapse of access to essential supplies, which it links to a 41 per cent decrease in live births and a 300 per cent increase in miscarriages. It also warns that the growing use of drones and long-range weapons in populated areas, including strikes on schools, markets and hospitals, adds to the danger.

Excluded from peace talks

Women made up just five per cent of negotiators across 57 peace processes in 2025, down from seven per cent the year before, the report says, and none of 13 ceasefire agreements explicitly prohibited conflict-related sexual violence. About 170 million women and girls live both in conflict zones and in extreme poverty, on less than $3 a day, it adds.

“War is getting deadlier for women and girls, and the world is allowing it to happen,” said UN Women Deputy Executive Director Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, who briefed journalists. UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous contrasted the trend with global military spending, which the report puts at a record $2.9 trillion last year, while 40 per cent of women’s organisations in crisis-affected settings expect to close temporarily or permanently within the next year because of funding shortfalls.

UN Women is calling for better protection of women and girls, their meaningful participation in peace and security, sustained investment in women-led peacebuilding and an end to impunity. The report appears as the Security Council marks the anniversary of its children and armed conflict mandate, a meeting Geopolitiki covered in Greece chairs UN Security Council meeting marking 30 years of the children and armed conflict mandate.