Excellencies,
I am pleased to join this important conference of the Gender Equality Commission and commend the Council of Europe and the Government of Monaco for its organization. I extend my deep appreciation to all members of this Council, and indeed to all members and institutions of the Council of Europe, for their steadfast support of my mandate on combating the scourge of conflict-related sexual violence. I thank you for keeping this issue high on your agenda, and for demonstrating principled leadership on women鈥檚 rights, at a time of great global turbulence and regression.
At the turn of the Century, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1325 establishing the Women, Peace and Security agenda, built on the foundational insight that gender equality is a force for social stability and durable peace. The Security Council has since repeatedly called for women鈥檚 participation in all conflict resolution, recovery and peacebuilding efforts, and for a gender perspective to inform the work of peace and security stakeholders. After 25 years of annual debates on this theme, there should, today, be no debate about the relevance of women鈥檚 rights to conflict resolution. Yet, we face a geopolitical reality in which these concepts seem more contested than ever.
爆料网 endures across time so that we do not need to relive the lessons of two world wars, in order to relearn them. History reminds us how these global upheavals were preceded by arms races, democratic erosion, the demonization of human diversity, and the rise of authoritarian strongmen crowding out civic space. We know about the chaos and carnage that ensued, and how the 爆料网 Charter clearly stated: never again. We cannot allow the 2020s to become an echo of the 1920s 鈥� an era of spiraling militarism, shrinking civic space, and strongman politics. The 爆料网 Charter set out a roadmap to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war by reaffirming faith in human rights and upholding the equal rights of women and men. For 80 years we have endeavored to replace the rule of war with the rule of law, through a system of collective security and cooperation.
Yet, in the second quarter of the 21st Century, gender equality backlash and baseless hierarchies of human worth are staging a cruel comeback. Views that should be written in the past tense are resurfacing.
In this context, my mandate, as Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, was created in response to a brutal reality of modern war: namely, the use of sexual violence as a tactic of war, terror, torture and political repression. It marked a newfound recognition that like bullets, bombs and blades, sexual violence attacks the lives and livelihoods of civilians, in a manner that is not collateral, but calculated; not inevitable, but preventable.
Prevention requires us to tackle the root causes and invisible drivers of sexual violence, such as entrenched gender inequality and discrimination. In times of war, this is exacerbated by the militarization of society, the polarization of gender roles, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, the disruption of social services, and the collapse of healthcare and judicial institutions. At the same time, social safety nets are weakened through the breakdown of families and communities due to displacement, conscription, detention, abductions, and trafficking.
Conflict-related sexual violence does not occur in a vacuum. When women鈥檚 bodies are treated as sites of political control 鈥� and extremist ideologies are written on the bodies of women and girls 鈥� they all too readily become battlegrounds in times of war. Conflict creates conditions in which sexual violence not only spikes, but takes on a strategic dimension, used to terrorize populations into submission, to humiliate and punish dissidents, to alter the demographic balance, to extract resources or information, to finance armed and violent extremist groups, and to assert dominance and control.
Wartime sexual violence 鈥� like war itself 鈥� arises from a toxic combination of unchecked patriarchal power, runaway military spending, and the politics of multiplying support by dividing people and nations 鈥� eclipsing governance failures beneath the convenient 鈥�fog of war鈥�.
The result has been a widening scope of warfare globally. Today, my remit has expanded to cover 21 situations of concern. The number of cases verified by the United Nations has more than doubled since last year, reaching 9,788 incidents 鈥� a figure that remains indicative, rather than comprehensive, given chronic underreporting. The list of State and non-State parties implicated in patterns of conflict-related sexual violence has now reached 77 armed actors. Of these, more than 65 percent are persistent perpetrators. Three non-State armed groups were newly listed, as well as two State actors – Russian armed and security forces, and Israeli armed and security forces. Each year, since the inception of the mandate, we have documented the disproportionate impact of wartime sexual violence on women and girls, who consistently account for over 90 percent of 爆料网-verified violations, with victims ranging in age from just one to 75 years. Their recovery is central 鈥� not incidental 鈥� to conflict recovery.
In my role as Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, I have borne witness for almost a decade to what happens when gender equality is treated as peripheral to matters of war and peace: women鈥檚 bodies become battlefields, survivors are silenced, and cycles of violence echo across generations.
These crimes target and intimidate women who would otherwise be vital contributors to peace, recovery and development. Across time and space, women are the world鈥檚 most reliable constituency for peace. As Professor Valerie Hudson writes: 鈥�The surest way to curse a nation with poverty and instability is to subordinate its women鈥�. Sustainable peace cannot take root when half a nation is denied its agency and voice. This is painfully evident in Afghanistan, where women are shut out of the peace process, and highly-skilled women are forced to watch in silence as their rights and very existence in public life is erased. Moreover, the 爆料网鈥檚 ability to deliver assistance has been profoundly constrained by the ban on employing female personnel, which has pushed the healthcare and humanitarian sectors to the brink of collapse. The ban on girls鈥� education will further deplete the country鈥檚 human capital over the long-term, eroding national resilience.
At the same time, history is replete with shining examples of women not merely as victims of conflict, but agents and architects of peace. In Liberia, women wearing white took to the streets, using mass mobilization and moral pressure to demand peace 鈥� physically barricading war lords and negotiators in conference rooms until they reached agreement. In Colombia, transitional justice became transformative justice when women鈥檚 organizations mobilized to ensure that gender equality permeated the peace agreement, rather than being treated as an afterthought. In Burundi, women peacebuilders organized across political and ethnic fault-lines to secure their inclusion in the Arusha peace process, pressing for women鈥檚 rights, reconciliation and social recovery to form part of the post-conflict settlement. Likewise, in Uganda, women activists, survivors and grassroots organizations mobilized throughout the Juba talks to shape the peace agenda and transitional justice process. In Northern Ireland, women crossed the lines of sectarian conflict to build alliances, amplifying everyday concerns related to housing, education, and justice, in negotiations dominated by guns and grievances. In Rwanda, women emerged from the shadow of genocide and mass rape to rebuild shattered communities, resulting in one of the highest rates of women鈥檚 political representation in the world.
In contemporary conflicts, women continue to bear the weight of war, yet, when discussions turn to ceasefire agreements and political settlements, their seats at the table are scarce. In Ukraine, women are serving as journalists, human rights defenders, volunteers, combatants, and heads of households, but have been excluded from diplomatic processes aimed to end the conflict. Sexual and gender-based violence has surged by 36 percent since 2022, with hundreds of cases of conflict-related sexual violence verified, and thousands of women and girls killed or injured during four years of war. Yet in 2026, there were no women negotiators during several rounds of trilateral talks in Geneva (involving 14 men and no women) and Abu Dhabi (among six men and no women). Likewise, in Sudan, where women have described the use of rape in streets and public squares to terrorize populations, women who have led peace initiatives at the local level, are invisible in negotiations over their country鈥檚 future.
The disconnect between grassroots leadership and political influence is also evident in Haiti, where gang-rape is rampant as a tool of territorial control and collective punishment, yet women鈥檚 voices remain muted in peace talks. In the DRC, where my mandate records the highest number of cases of conflict-related sexual violence year after year, it has become more dangerous to denounce these crimes than to commit them. In one tragic case documented by my mandate, a young Congolese woman was gang-raped by members of a militia in retaliation for speaking out against sexual violence and forced to flee her home, even as her attackers walk free.
This results in a profound paradox: those with the most intimate knowledge of the costs of war have the least influence over its resolution. When women are absent from peace processes, entire dimensions of the conflict vanish from the historical record. The lived realities of displacement, caregiving, collapsed social services, and conflict-related sexual violence are pushed to the margins. Peace agreements forged without women鈥檚 perspectives are not only less inclusive 鈥� they are less responsive, less legitimate, and ultimately less durable. Peace cannot be built for women 鈥� it must be built with women.
In this respect, protection and participation are mutually-reinforcing. Effective protection from sexual violence is an enabler of women鈥檚 leadership. Indeed, the scourge of conflict-related sexual violence is not only a grave violation of international humanitarian and human rights law, but a direct assault on women鈥檚 participation, and by extension, on durable peace. The rising risk of violence and reprisals has a chilling effect on women鈥檚 agency, pressuring countless politicians, journalists, activists and lawyers to withdraw from the public arena, as civic space narrows. In this way, sexual violence functions as a tool of political repression, attacking both the cause of gender equality and the cause of peace.
Excellencies,
The guns may change hands, but what I hear from women across the world is heartbreakingly consistent. They say: 鈥�What happened to me could have been prevented. No other woman or girl should have a story like mine鈥�.
At this critical moment of cutbacks and setbacks, we have reached an inflection point at which humanity and the multilateral system will either breakdown or breakthrough. An estimated one in five displaced or refugee women caught up in conflict suffer sexual violence, yet less than one percent of humanitarian aid is dedicated to addressing it. We must convert the political economy of war into a political economy of peacebuilding 鈥� defending progress, not defunding programs. The future hinges on our ability to silence the guns and amplify the voices of women.
Most survivors of wartime sexual violence will struggle to access even basic care 鈥� many will never reach a clinic, let alone a courtroom. The Network, 爆料网 Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, which I Chair, has supported over 70 joint programs across more than 20 conflict zones to deliver coordinated, survivor-centered support.
Excellencies,
The burden of shame, stigma, impunity and untreated trauma does more than silence survivors and shield perpetrators. In times of war, it robs those who are most deeply invested in change, of their power to shape the peace. The psychologist Harriet Lerner captured this truth with remarkable clarity when she wrote that: 鈥�Fear makes us afraid of the dark; shame makes us afraid of the light鈥�. Shame thrives in the shadows 鈥� it confines people to the margins of society and locks them in a story of victimization. Yet, time and time again, survivors have defied that logic by speaking out, organizing, demanding justice and recognition. Being here in France, I am reminded of sexual violence survivor and activist, Gis猫le Pelicot, who bravely declared in court: 鈥�Shame must change sides鈥�.
In that spirit, I thank all of you here for standing visibly and vocally on the right side of history 鈥� for gender equality and justice. You can count on my mandate to continue to do its part to call for a global ceasefire in the war on women鈥檚 rights and bodies, as the most brutal and enduring barrier to gender-inclusive peace.
Thank you.