Every day, women and girls across the world, especially those living in conflict-affected regions, endure violence that is systematically obscured, minimized, or outright denied. This year, during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we draw urgent attention to the structural, pervasive, and ongoing violence faced by women and girls in Tigray and Sudan. For them, these 16 days are not merely a campaign; they are a stark reminder to the world of a relentless struggle unfolding amid collapsed protection systems, limited accountability, and entrenched impunity.
In Tigray and Sudan, gendered harms are shaped by intersecting crises: conflict, mass displacement, humanitarian crises, and the erosion of social and institutional safeguards. Women and girls face a continuum of violence, including both gender-based violence (GBV) and conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). While these forms of violence overlap, their drivers and implications differ, and distinguishing them is critical for designing effective responses.
GBV encompasses psychological abuse, domestic violence, reproductive coercion, economic deprivation, and more—all rooted in unequal power relations and systemic gender discrimination. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly one in three women globally has experienced this kind of violence in their lifetime. In conflict-affected settings, these risks are heightened as protection systems erode, humanitarian crises unfold, and daily survival becomes fraught with insecurity.
On the other hand, CRSV is strategic and deliberate. Recognized by the UN Security Council as a war tactic and a grave breach of international humanitarian and human rights law, CRSV is the deliberate deployment of sexual violence by armed actors to intimidate, displace, fracture, or subjugate populations. UN bodies and independent investigative entities have reported the widespread and systemic use of CRSV in Tigray, and a rapidly escalating pattern in Sudan. Acts including gang rape, sexual torture, forced pregnancy, sexual slavery, and other forms of sexual violence were deployed as instruments of warfare and social destruction. The persistence of these violations is compounded by a culture of impunity that emboldens perpetrators and silences survivors.
The impact of these distinct forms of violence is amplified by the destruction of health and justice systems. Decimated hospitals and shattered supply chains, as well as a reduced healthcare workforce, have left survivors without emergency care, clinical management of rape, post-exposure prophylaxis, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), or long-term rehabilitation. Justice systems mirror this collapse: courts are nonfunctional, legal aid is scarce, documentation is risky, and accountability mechanisms remain largely absent. Meanwhile, across these contexts, perpetrators continue to operate with near-total impunity—a reality that fuels ongoing violations and deepens trauma. For countless survivors, the violence endures not only because it occurred, but because nothing has been done to acknowledge it, hold those responsible to account, or stop it from happening again.
As these structural gaps persist, violence against women and girls is no longer confined to physical or offline spaces—it is increasingly permeating digital environments. This year’s global theme, “UNiTE to End Digital Violence Against All Women and Girls”, highlights this rapidly expanding dimension of harm. Digital platforms, while offering opportunities for connection, community-building, and advocacy, have also evolved into spaces of surveillance, harassment, and targeted attacks. Survivors of GBV and CRSV are experiencing digital abuse that retraumatizes, reinforces stigma, jeopardizes their physical safety, and compromises confidentiality, deterring them from seeking services or speaking out about the violence they endured.
Women leaders, advocates, and human rights defenders are targeted with equal, if not greater, intensity. Those who document violations, amplify survivors’ voices, and push for strategic, political, and community-level solutions are faced with coordinated attacks: doxxing, sexualized harassment, disinformation, and threats intended to intimidate and discredit. These digital assaults are not incidental—they are structural tools used by armed actors, political factions, and their supporters to maintain patriarchal power, suppress women’s leadership, and restrict participation in political, civic, and peacebuilding spaces. In contexts where women’s engagement is essential to addressing root causes of conflict and building sustainable peace, digital violence is functioning as a mechanism of exclusion, perpetuating the very inequalities and insecurity that expose millions of women and girls to GBV and CRSV.
These intersecting forms of violence cannot be addressed in isolation. Ending the multidimensional violence that women and girls in Tigray, Sudan, and other conflict settings continue to face requires coordinated, strategic, and sustained action. This includes:
Above all, local, regional, and international actors must treat women and girls as political actors and rights holders—not solely as victims. Sustainable peacebuilding, accountability, and recovery require centering their leadership, resourcing their movements, and integrating their analysis and lived realities into all levels of response.
