Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Cases Nearly Doubled in 2025 - Briefing

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Published Jul 10, 2026

“Instead of defending lifesaving progress, we are defunding lifesaving programmes. Instead of punishing these crimes, we see increased persecution of those who dare to denounce them,” the UN’s envoy on sexual violence in conflict told the Security Council.

Briefing the Council today, Pramila Patten, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, said the annual report before the Council “holds a mirror up to the changing face of war.”

“The promise of international law has never been more relevant – or more severely tested,” she said.

Patten's remarks drew on the Secretary-General's latest annual report on conflict-related sexual violence (S/2026/321), which was made public on 29 May.

According to the report, the UN verified 9,788 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2025, “more than double the number recorded last year,” Patten said, adding that the true toll is far higher, with humanitarians in the field estimating that for every case reaching a clinic, 10 to 20 go unreported.

“The highest number of UN-verified cases were recorded in the DRC, Haiti and Sudan,” she noted. The report also names the Central African Republic among the worst-affected situations, out of 21 contexts covered overall.

Patten pointed to two new state listings in the annex to the report. “New listings this cycle include non-State actors in the DRC and Haiti, and two State actors in Israel and the Russian Federation. At this time last year, both State parties were put on notice due to protection concerns, including patterns of sexual violence and systematic denials of access to independent UN monitors,” she said.

The Secretary-General formally communicated required measures to both parties on 11 August 2025, she added, but “neither the violations nor the conflicts have ceased.”

“We do not compile these reports simply to count the victims; we compile them because the victims are counting on us. They are counting on this Council to turn documentation into accountability, rights into protection, and atrocities into assistance – to chart a path to peace out of the wreckage of war,” Patten said.

She warned against a broader erosion of the international system. “Eighty years ago, this Organization was founded to replace the law of force with the force of law. We cannot afford to allow an inversion of these hard-won values, whereby human rights, equality, and respect for diversity are disparaged, and institutions built over decades are dismantled overnight,” she said.