By Sharon Atieno
Women continue to bear the brunt of war despite a commitment by the global community to uphold their rights in such situations, a United Nations (UN) report reveals.
Of the 33, 443 civilian deaths in armed conflicts recorded by the organization in 2023, four out of ten were women. This is double the number killed in 2022.
The majority of the cases were reported in Gaza (Palestine). Others were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, and elsewhere.
Further, the number of UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence was 50 per cent higher than the year before, and the number of girls affected by grave violations in situations of armed conflict increased by 35 per cent.
In the DRC, more than 123,000 cases of gender-based violence were reported in 2023, a 300 per cent increase in only three years. Displaced women and girls in and around Goma are forced to engage in survival sex, including in at least 1,063 brothels.
In Haiti, Médecins sans frontières (MSF) alone supported more than 3,700 survivors of sexual violence and intimate partner violence in 2023, a 43 per cent increase from the number of survivors it had supported in the previous year.
The International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia concluded that more than 10,000 survivors of sexual violence had sought healthcare in one-stop centres in Tigray alone between November 2020 and June 2023.
The “heinous crime” of sexual violence in conflict is not only a gross violation of human rights but also a formidable obstacle to peace, security and development, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said, noting that it has never been more urgent to end the scourge.
She was speaking in a video message during a commemoration ceremony where the UN was marking 15 years of its mandate on sexual violence and conflict.
“We must hold perpetrators accountable, but equally, we must innovate to prevent these atrocities in the first place,” she said.
“We must identify innovative and creative strategies, not only to respond to conflict related sexual violence, but to prevent it, and finally, consign such violations to the annals of history once and for all.”
However, basic public awareness about these injustices is lacking. A recent study showed that while media coverage about conflict increased more than sixfold between 2013 and 2023, only 5 per cent of the coverage focused on women’s experiences in war, and only 0.04 per cent of articles published about armed conflict in that period mentioned women’s contribution as leaders.
The situation of women and girls affected by intersecting forms of discrimination is even more worrisome and requires greater attention, the UN report says.
Concerning health care, the report notes that women in war zones are increasingly suffering from restricted access to essential medical services. Data shows that 61 per cent of preventable maternal mortality occur in 35 crisis-affected countries, which amounts to 500 deaths per day.
In the Sudan, which already had one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world before the outbreak of the armed conflict in April 2023, 2.64 million women and girls of reproductive age are now in need of urgent assistance, including 260,000 pregnant women.
Amid reports of widespread sexual violence, most victims were unable to access the necessary medical care during the first 72 hours after being raped, including post-exposure prophylaxis or emergency contraception, and the UN received reports of victims of rape having been denied an abortion because it was outside of the timeline allowed for by law.
In Yemen, women have limited or no access to reproductive health services, including antenatal care, safe delivery, postnatal care, family planning and emergency obstetric and newborn care. The limited reproductive health and postnatal care previously available in Yemen further declined by 35 and 22 per cent, respectively, in the first half of 2023. These circumstances demonstrate why attention to this issue is so urgent, and gaps in accountability for reproductive violence so grievous.
Food insecurity is also a big issue. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated that more than one in every four women and girls globally experienced moderate or severe food insecurity. In conflict-affected settings, one in two women and girls face moderate or severe food insecurity.
The report notes that in the Sudan, 5,500 pregnant women and 7,000 new mothers may die in the coming months from starvation, as warring parties deliberately obstruct food aid.
In Gaza, nearly nine in 10 women find it harder to access food than men, and 84 per cent report that their family eats half or less of the food they ate before the war began, with mothers often skipping meals to feed their children.
The report notes that one of the key challenges is severe lack of funding. While global military expenditures reached a record $2.44 trillion in 2023, funding for organizations and movements that support women’s rights average just 0.3 per cent of total aid annually.
Furthermore, investments in gender-based violence prevention and response make up less than one per cent of all humanitarian spending.
