Women made up only 7 percent of negotiators and 14 percent of mediators worldwide. UN report: The number of women living near conflict zones and dying in war is growing Women
The world today faces the highest number of active armed conflicts since 1946, resulting in enormous suffering for women and girls.
More and more women are living near conflict zones
According to the UN Secretary-General’s 2025 report on women, peace and security, 676 million women live within 50 kilometers of war zones. This is the highest figure since the 1990s. The death toll among women and children has quadrupled since the previous two years. “Women and girls are dying at record levels, excluded from peace negotiations and left unprotected while conflicts escalate,” said Sima Bacchus, Executive Director of UN Women.
In Ukraine, women and girls make up 31 percent of all civilian casualties, reported in the report. The national domestic violence rate has increased by 36 percent since 2022, and 42 percent of women are now at risk of developing depression.
The report estimates that 640,000 Ukrainian women and girls have suffered from cuts in psychosocial support, mental health services and women’s economic empowerment programs supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
“To counter this trend, the government is working with Germany and UN Women have created an alliance of 15 governments, major international financial institutions, civil society and the private sector to improve financing for gender equality in Ukraine’s reconstruction process,” the report said.
It also said that worldwide There has been an 87 percent increase in conflict-related sexual violence.
The report was published to mark the 25th anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, in which the international community committed to ensuring greater participation of women in conflict resolution and peace processes, and to providing women and girls with the protection they need in conflicts.
Progress could be reversed
As the report notes, more than two decades of progress in this area may be reduced to nothing. For example, Georgia has recently seen a significant increase in the number of women in municipal leadership positions – up to 30 percent, up from 13.4 percent in 2021. However, in April 2024, the Georgian parliament abolished mandatory electoral gender quotas, which may reverse this trend.
“Women do not need new promises – they need power, protection and equal participation,” Sima is convinced Bacchus.
Despite ample evidence that women’s participation in negotiation processes makes the world more stable, they remain almost completely excluded from decision-making. Although more countries are developing national action plans to implement resolution 1325, this rarely leads to real change.
In 2024, nine out of 10 peace processes did not include a single female negotiator. Women made up only 7 percent of negotiators and 14 percent of mediators worldwide.
Investing in War
Report also indicates that although global military spending exceeded $2.7 trillion in 2024, women’s organizations in conflict zones received only 0.4 percent of aid. Many are on the verge of closing due to lack of funding.
According to Bacchus, these are not “dry numbers”, but a sign that the international community is deliberately investing in war rather than peace, while continuing to exclude women from the adoption process solutions.
The report also highlights the need for a “gender revolution” in data. Without gender-specific data, the world knows little about the reality of women in conflict zones.
UN Women calls for concrete results – ensuring conflict resolution through inclusive political processes, increasing women’s participation in leading security and reconstruction reforms, and strengthen accountability for violations against women.