Weaponizing Shame: The Hidden Epidemic of Unreported Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones

Crisis-associated sexual violence (CRSV) is considered one of the worst and most wide-spread human rights abuse during armed conflict. In spite of the international condemnation and legalism that exposes such acts as being war crimes, crimes against humanity, and even genocide, behind its wall of silence, stigma and shame is the actual extent of sexual violence in conflict areas. 

Breaking the Cycle, Healing the Scars: Addressing the Intergenerational Effects of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, the 2025 International Day of the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict reading, it is evident the pandemic of underreporting is still ravaging people, making families, and whole communities.

The Scope of Conflict Associated Sexual Violence

Meaning and Concepts

According to the United Nations, the term conflict-related sexual violence includes rape, sexual slavery, abuse of forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, induced sterilization, forced marriage as well as instances of human trafficking to be sexually exploited. These are committed against women, men, girls and boys and are closely or indirectly associated with conflict. 

They are being applied methodologically as a tool of war, torture, and terrorism, which is subjected to cause fear, pain, and annihilation of the social fabric of communities that are being targeted.

Conflict-related sexual violence is not collateral damage.

It’s a heinous weapon of war that fractures lives, uproots communities, and leaves scars that span generations for women and girls.

By breaking the cycle we build a future rooted in justice and care. #EndRapeInWar pic.twitter.com/06bN37Z16m

— Joyce Msuya (@JoyceMsuya) June 19, 2025

Underreporting: The Hidden Epidemic

One of the most alarming aspects of CRSV is the vast underreporting. According to UN field practitioners, for every reported case of rape during conflict, 10 to 20 cases go unrecorded due to fear, cultural shame, and the threat of retaliation. This means that the official statistics represent only a fraction of the true scale of the problem.

Global Incidents and Patterns

Recent data from the Humanitarian Data Exchange covering January 2025 highlights ongoing incidents of sexual violence perpetrated by conflict actors, security personnel, and against vulnerable groups such as aid workers, educators, health workers, and internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees. 

The United Nations Secretary-General’s 2024 report documents that in 2023, there was a 50% increase in UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence compared to the previous year, with 3,888 cases globally. Women and girls accounted for 95% of these cases, while men and boys made up the remaining 5%.

Children and Vulnerable Groups

• In 2023, 1,186 children were victims of CRSV; 98% were girls.
• 21 cases were recorded against LGBTQI individuals, a group often overlooked in reporting and response efforts.

Geographic Spread

CSRV has reported at least 21 conflict scenarios across the world such as Ukraine, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Middle East among others. In Ukraine alone, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had reported 370 cases of sexual violence since the beginning of 2022, both women and men were affected.

Shameful Weapons

Cultural, Social Barriers

Among the most relevant obstacles to the reporting of sexual violence in conflict, the role of fear and cultural shame should be pointed out. When they speak up, there are chances of being ostracized, victim-blaming and even facing violence, especially, by families and the local communities. Such shame weaponization is not only a weapon against the speaking of survivors, but also the creation of a culture of impunity to the perpetrators.

Normalization and Impunity

As the conflagrations persist, rationalization of violence on women and girls takes place and there is collapse of protection systems and accountability systems in the case of perpetrators in the confusion of the war. Sexual violence is further promoted by the inability to seek justice and high impunity by armed elements.

Communique of the UN Secretary-General Antoni Guterres:

“For too many women and children, war is not over when it’s over. Its effects echo long after the final battle and far beyond the battlefield. We see it in the eyes of survivors, in the children born of war, and in fractured families.”

Weaponization and Militarization: Fueling the Crisis

The Role of Armed Groups

Sexual violence is frequently used as a deliberate tactic by both state and non-state armed groups to terrorize civilian populations, destroy communities, and destabilize societies. The proliferation of small arms and increased militarization are directly linked to spikes in sexual violence during conflict.

• Specific outcomes or instances are documented, such as attacks against aid workers, teachers, and health workers in conflict areas and sexual violence against the IDPs and refugees was only witnessed in January 20254.
• In the Congo Democratic Republic and Sudan, violence has led to the displacement of people, as warring groups and military forces employ violent acts, which has led to increased incidences of sexual and gender-based violence happening in displacement sites and those surrounding them in economic desperation.

Economic and Social Effect

Conflict-related sexual violence drags down the livelihood of women, interferes with girls getting access to education and creates revenues to armed and violent extremist organizations through trafficking and exploitation6. Both survivors and the community as a whole are impacted socially and economically in the short and long term by the stigma associated with CRSV and its catastrophic effects.

Intergenerational Impact

Permanent Wounds and Scar Trauma

Being in 2025 and focusing on the year’s theme, Breaking the Cycle, Healing the Scars, highlights the repercussions and effects of CRSV on generations. Trauma causes psychological, social, and even economic scars to survivors and their offspring in the likely event that they outlive the guns.

Statement from UN Special Representative Pramila Patten

“This year’s Secretary-General’s report highlights ‘an unprecedented level of lethal violence used to silence survivors in the wake of sexual assault.’ Given that 70 to 90 per cent of sexual violence incidents involve the use of weapons, measures imposed by UN sanctions regimes must be used to stop the flow of weapons into violators’ hands. We cannot condemn the perpetrators of sexual violence in our speeches while continuing to fund and arm them through our supply chains.”

Children Born of War

Children born as a result of sexual violence in conflict face unique challenges, including statelessness, discrimination, and psychological trauma. The effects of CRSV ripple through generations, affecting family structures and community cohesion.

The Struggle for Justice and Accountability

Legal Frameworks and International Action

The international law acknowledges the sexual violence in the context of conflict as a criminal act of war, crime against humanity and even genocide. The UN Security Council has passed resolutions against sexual assault as a form of warfare, as well as a way to prevent peacebuilding, as with Resolution 1820 (2008). But its enforcement is feeble and there is a lot of impunity.

International Organisations Their Role

• To avert CRSV, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict has committed the signatures of the 12 Joint Communiqu/Frameworks of Cooperation with Member States.
• Women’s Protection Advisers are deployed in peace operations to enhance data collection and analysis on CRSV.

Barriers to Reporting and Justice

Survivors often face threats of retaliation, lack of access to legal services, and inadequate support systems. The threat of further violence and the collapse of legal institutions during conflict make it nearly impossible for most survivors to seek justice.

Steps Forward Breaking the Silence

Advocacy and Awareness

The International Day to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which is celebrated on June 19, 2025, is focused on creating awareness, putting the spotlight on survivors, and showing the solidarity with victims of CRSV. The global movement #EndRapeInWar aims to change the stigma that surrounds rape in war and reveals the survivors as they are in the lights.

Recommendations for Action

• Enhance Legal Responsibility: See that those who perpetrate CRSV are tried and put accountable to international law.
• Care for Survivors: Make sure that the survivors of sexual violence receive complete medical, psychological, and legal assistance.
• Address Root Causes: Root causes are the ever-growing arms proliferation, militarization and gender inequality–address them.
• Empower Women and Girls: Foster the inclusion of women in the peace processes and decision-making mechanisms on peace and security.
• Promote More Data Collection: For more knowledge of the epidemic and improvement of data collection, increase the number of Women Protection Advisers and work on CRSV data collection.

An unreported epidemic of sexual violence in areas of conflict is an issue on which the world should focus immediately. By making use of weapons called shame and silence, all abusers always leave an indelible mark on the torture of their victims; their families and the society in general. With the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict taking place in 2025, the message of action comes straightforward: silence needs to end, survivors of sexual violence must be taken care of, and those perpetrating it must be on trial. The shame and stigma can only be stopped only through facing it directly, in the aim of dissolving this vicious circle and starting the process of recovering the traumas of war.