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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A new report by the United Nations says the world is moving in an "unexpected direction" regarding women rights.
Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, UN Women Deputy Executive Director for Normative Support, presented the Secretary-General's 2025 Report on Women, Peace and Security during a press briefing. She stated that the report " it shows a world moving in an unexpected wrong direction."
"Women who stand up to be on the front line, to show their face, might not have the necessary protection that they need when they go back home," she added.
The report states that since the end of World War II, the number of armed conflicts has never been as high as it is today.
While most conflicts are initiated by men, they have a significant impact on women.
"Just last year, 676 million women and girls around the world lived within 50 kilometers of an active conflict. That is the highest number of women living near conflict in nearly three decades," Sara Hendricks, Director for the Policy, Programme, Intergovernmental Division at UN Women, said.
"Almost nine out of ten peace processes just last year included no women negotiators at all…. We do know that overall excluding half the population from peace processes actually leads to fragile agreements and to ones that rarely last," she noted.
Across the entire world, the report states, women are often not seen as worthy of participating in post-war peace processes.
The exclusion of women, the United Nations says, leads to peace that is not lasting.
Some European countries like Italy, whose prime minister is a woman, are calling for greater participation of women in third world countries.
"We believe that women are an asset that the international community should use more. We understand that the world is complicated, the situation is different in different countries, with different views, mentalities, and so on — and a lot needs to be done," Maurizio Massari, Italy's Permanent Representative to the UN, told Rudaw.
The report comes as 25 years have passed since the first United Nations Security Council resolution that emphasized the importance of women's participation in the peace process.
Namo Abdulla contributed to this article.
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