Yvette Cooper is U.K. secretary of state for foreign, commonwealth and development affairs.
A teenager raped by multiple men on the side of a road. A mother stripped naked and threatened with the rape of her small child if she didn’t comply. A woman whose child was murdered in front of her, then caught and gang raped by other soldiers after she escaped.
These are just some of the horrendous stories emerging from El Fasher and across Sudan where rape is being used deliberately and systematically as a weapon of war.
But it isn’t just Sudan. Evidence of sexual violence in conflict has been increasing at the same time as international focus on it has diminished. With more of the world now in conflict than at any time since the Second World War, women are paying a devastating price. From Syria to Sudan, from Yemen to Ukraine, it is estimated that up to 30 percent of women and girls in conflict zones worldwide have experienced sexual violence – including appalling ordeals of systematic gang rape, abduction and sexual slavery.
Yet shamefully their plight has too often been ignored and their voice in building peace has too often gone unheard. Twenty-five years on from the landmark Women, Peace and Security resolution at the United Nations, the prospects for women caught up in conflict are more perilous than ever before. That must change.
As foreign secretary I am determined that the U.K. will shine a new spotlight on women in war, so that at the heart of U.K. foreign policy we recognize women not just as victims of conflict but as architects of peace.
For many years, the U.K. has played a leading international role to redress these injustices – whether reflected in commitments from Robin Cook, Clare Short or William Hague. And this year marks a milestone for our contribution and for global efforts, as we commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of a landmark UN agreement, Security Resolution 1325, which for the first time recognized the need to better protect women from sexual violence during conflict, as well as the pivotal role of women in shaping and building peace.
Yet in recent years, as conflict has raged around the world, the plight of women has been seen as peripheral and progress has stalled. But the scale of the problem is deeply disturbing and it is growing. In 2024, the UN documented 4,600 reported cases of conflict-related sexual violence, up 25 percent from just a year before. And more than 600 million women across the world now live within 50km of armed conflict, a staggering increase of 74 percent since 2010.
So it is time to bring new momentum to the commitments captured in Resolution 1325 a quarter of a century ago. As we intensify international pressure urgently needed to tackle humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan, we must not look away from the sexual violence being used as a terrorizing tactic in that brutal war. And as we work to sustain the ceasefire and reconstruction of Gaza we must make sure women’s voices are heard in the pursuit of peace.
That’s why we are radically stepping up efforts to end impunity for sexual crimes in conflict and to support women peace builders around the world. The U.K. is providing expert technical support to Ukrainian police, prosecutors and judges to support war crimes investigations. We have funded specialist sexual investigators to assist UN fact-finding missions in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Myanmar. And we are working to tackle the silence and stigma faced by survivors of sexual violence, building an international coalition to combat reprisals that all too often follow when women speak out.
We are also going further through our humanitarian work in Gaza, funding special support for pregnant women and new mothers.
And whilst tackling impunity and meeting immediate needs is clearly vital, women also have to be central to securing lasting peace. Women like Monica McWilliams and Pearl Sagar who campaigned for women’s voices to be heard in ending the troubles in Northern Ireland; or Leymah Gbowee, who led a movement to end Liberia’s civil war. And the many women of Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres who helped broker the peace deal that ended Colombia’s protracted conflict.
Here at home, this government has set an unprecedented mission to tackle the epidemic of violence against women and girls — including work to halve violence against women and girls within the next decade. As foreign secretary, I am determined to ensure that mission is reflected in our foreign policy too — standing with women across the globe in resisting violence, expanding opportunity and boosting political participation.
We will step up international collaboration to address these horrific harms that should have been consigned to the history books. Because we know there cannot be peace, security or prosperity without women playing their full part, free from violence and free from fear.