UNHCR: Millions Of Women, Girls Forced To Flee, Face High Risk Of Gender-Based Violence

By United Nations Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons More than 60 million women and girls worldwide who are forcibly displaced or stateless face high risks of gender-based violence (GBV), but funding for lifesaving services to support them is woefully lacking, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.  UN data reveals that reports of conflict-related sexual violence increased shockingly by 50 per cent last yearcompared to 2023, and women and girls accounted for 95 per cent of verified cases. These numbers, however,  “represent a small fraction of the reality” as many cases go unreported, the agency warned. Justice out of reach “In many remote locations, humanitarian access is cut off or resources and assistance are scarce. Access to justice also remains limited, and survivors fear retaliation and social marginalization,” UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told journalists in Geneva. She said colleagues working in conflict situations continue to hear from survivors who have faced brutal violence, torture, sexual exploitation, sexual violence and other horrors, including as a weapon of war. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), for example, women’s and girls’ bodies have become an extension of the “battle ground” amid cyclical violence and worsening insecurity, including in displacement sites.& Furthermore,...