From Knowledge to Prevention: The UN Action Approach to Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

India has made, as well as several others, the constraint is not simply a shortage of capital. Too often promising ocean solutions remain too small, too fragmented, are insufficiently prepared, and we must fix that. And the point that Alfredo in particular has made about the private sector, that it must be more than a source of finance. They contribute innovation, technology, data, supply chains, and delivery capacity, and we must engage how they serve public priorities, environmental integrity, et cetera. The last point I want to do is to really talk about how the dialogue and what must point forward. It takes place at an important moment, following the Pacific Islands Forum, and the Trabzon ministerial or high-level meeting and ahead of the pre-COP meetings in COP31 in Antalya. The task now is to carry these discussions into a coherent and durable ocean outcome at COP31, one that connects the negotiated processes, the action agenda, and complementary presidency-led initiatives. Antalya should not simply restate that ocean matters, it should show what governments and institutions will do differently, how they will strengthen coordination, support implementation, mobilize fit-for-purpose finance, expand access to science and technology, and establish accountability for delivery. If COP31 is to merit the name Blue COP, and more than anybody else, Ambassador Thompson popularized the term, the ocean must be visible not only in its narrative, but in its outcomes and the machinery of implementation that follows. We should carry this message from this room into the UN Climate Summit tomorrow, the pre-COP process in Fiji and Tuvalu, and finally Antalya. We should ask the UN system to improve the coherences across ocean-related mandates and institutions. We should turn today's proposals into specific actions with responsible actors, resources, and timelines. and we should ensure that the voices of the Pacific, small island states, coastal communities, scientists, and young people remain central throughout. Today's discussion has made one point unmistakable. There can be no climate stability without a healthy and resilient ocean, and there will be no effective ocean action without cooperation across borders, institutions, and sectors. With that, I thank you and hand over the floor back to the chair of the dialogue, Ambassador Peter Thompson.

Thank you very much, Rama. Okay, two points. One would be a run of thanks and secondly, would be a little bit about that blue thread just to conclude everything. I stand between you and lunch, so I'll be very, very brief. First of all, the thanks. Thanks so much to the Secretariat, the Executive Office of the Secretary-General and to DESA. Superb work just in the last two weeks. You can imagine how much scrambling we've done. Secondly, to thank Rama, superb moderator, but in terms of carrying the heavy load, Rama was the one. So, thanks, of course, to all the panelists. It's great. There was not a boring moment there. And I'm sorry we had to push you along, but we had President Trump speaking upstairs. So I think we did very well to get everybody down here when we did. And I'm sure it's a lot more interesting down here than up there anyway. So that is what I want to say in terms of thanks. But also the people in the cheap seats. Come on, what did John Lennon say, rattle your jewelry or something. But thanks so much for sitting through the last two hours in here. Thank you for your closing remarks too. So everybody, I think we've had a very fulfilling two hours. So the big thanks to everybody involved. Then the Blue Thread. Okay, we run from, you've heard how this is all running towards Antalya, the Blue Cop. And Australia and Turkey have done such a fantastic job in preparing us for that, Fiji and Tuvalu doing their bit as well. So that, of course, that thread doesn't end in Antalya. The thread carries on. And we, the weavers of the thread, and that's all of us, have to keep that weaving process going. I'm hearing ocean governance, I'm hearing ocean finance, I'm hearing ocean science. These are the three threads that we're really weaving everywhere we can go. And in Fiji, when you weave something like that, you end up with a very nice mat, which we call a longer. And I think that longer will be presented at the fourth UN Ocean Conference in Busan in June 2028. when I know already from talks with Korea and Chile on a regular basis that that is what we're focusing on, finance and science and governance. So the map will be ready by the time we all arrive in Busan and Talia will be a big part of that. So thank you so much. Everybody, go and have some lunch. Thank you. Rama, well done. Did you enjoy yourself? That's the main thing. Did you enjoy yourself?

Actually ask someone who doesn't have a job to collect trash.

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Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, a very warm welcome to this UN action side event. Thank you all for being here. Not much else going on this week, aside from 166 other side events. We greatly appreciate your participation. My name is Letitia Anderson. I'm the coordinator of UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, and I'm very pleased to moderate today's event, Inaction is Not an Option, From Knowledge to Prevention, the UN Action Approach to Addressing CRSV. I extend our deepest gratitude to the European Union as lead supporter of UN Action's knowledge building work and to our 13 other esteemed co-sponsors, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Your steadfast political resolve and resources has made our collective action possible. And collective action is indeed critical, as this is a crime that lays bare the horrors and human costs of war. We are all here to deepen our knowledge and better understand the history of this scourge in order to deny it a future. Our program has a tight timetable this afternoon, and I wish to underscore that the floor will be open for member states who have previously inscribed on the speakers list, and we thank speakers in advance for adhering to the three-minute time allocation previously indicated. To set the scene, it is my honor to give the floor to the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Chair of the UN Action Network, Under-Secretary-General Pramila Patten, to deliver opening remarks and formally launch the new UN Action Toolkit on a survivor-centered approach. And I must say, this is extremely fitting. as SRSG Patten has worked tirelessly to prioritize prevention and center survivors since the start of her tenure in 2017. SRSG, you have the floor.

Thank you, Excellencies, distinguished participants and colleagues. Throughout the history of warfare, sexual violence, more than any other atrocity, has been routinely dismissed as inevitable. The result has been centuries of silencing and sidelining the experiences of survivors. By treating this violence as inevitable, inaction and indifference also became inevitable. In 2007, when UN Action launched its signature Stop Rape Now campaign, it called for a paradigm shift. It debunked the myth of inevitability, which shielded perpetrators, normalized sexual violence, and reduced survivors to the unavoidable collateral damage of war. Instead, it called for conflict-related sexual violence to be elevated onto the international peace and security agenda as a threat that is preventable, not inevitable, and for which inaction is not an option. The evidence bears this out. Patterns of sexual violence vary dramatically between conflicts and armed groups across time and space. And this variation tells us that violence or restraint is shaped by policy choices, incentives, command structures, normative frameworks, and consequences for noncompliance. Even the most extreme belligerent behavior is subject to change. Today, nearly two decades after the establishment of UN action, The question is no longer whether conflict-related sexual violence can be prevented, but how we can prevent it most effectively. One of the clearest lessons learned in this agenda is that applying a survivor-centered approach is not just a matter of ethics, it is a matter of effectiveness. Survivors are not just repositories of past stories. They are custodians of knowledge that can shape a safer future. Across many war-torn corners of the world, I have met survivors who are working in their communities as agents of change and architects of peace. It is vital to ensure that their voices and choices shape the global search for solutions. To that end, Security Council Resolution 2467 of 2019 called for a survivor-centered approach to inform all prevention and response efforts. The new UN Action Toolkit we are launching today will help to translate this promise into practice through a model that shifts power back to the survivor. The toolkit developed with survivors for practitioners provides practical guidance to ensure that interventions center the rights, needs and wishes of survivors, recognizing that they are not a homogeneous group, but face intersecting forms of discrimination. This addition to UN Action's Global Knowledge Hub builds on other pioneering tools, such as the matrix of early warning indicators developed to translate early warning signs into early action, and also the prevention framework, which articulates a two-track approach, namely primary prevention to address the root causes, drivers, and enabling conditions before conflict-related sexual violence occurs, and secondary prevention to mitigate the risk of stigma and reprisals that follow in its wake. Indeed, the true measure of success is the atrocity that never occurs, the life that is not irreversibly divided into before and after an unimaginable tragedy. As survivors everywhere have consistently told me, what happened to me could have been prevented. or no other woman or girl should have to suffer as I did. Today, we know more than ever before about the risk and repercussions of conflict-related sexual violence. And this makes our collective responsibility even greater. And it is time to move from best intentions to best practice. Yet, these crimes, which should have been relegated to the history books, continue to be repeated in our daily headlines. Last year, my mandate reported almost 10,000 UN-verified cases of sexual violence used as a tactic of war, torture, terror, and political repression. The trend lines are worsening, reflecting the widening scope of warfare globally, runaway military spending, arms proliferation, and record levels of forced displacement. Everything we know and are able to report about these crimes stems from the courage of survivors who risk stigma, reprisals, rejection, and public humiliation to come forward. They cannot be expected to do so in the absence of assistance. It is time to defend human dignity, not defund essential services. The founding vision of UN Action was to bridge sectoral silos to deliver a holistic response that meets survivors' needs, from medical care to psychological support, socioeconomic reintegration, and access to justice. Rather than being forced to navigate fragmented systems, we bring the system together around the survivor. UN Action has established and equipped integrated service centers in the DRC, Mali, Sudan, Ukraine, and elsewhere. In South Sudan, support for survivors linked recovery with economic empowerment. In Somalia, reintegration programs help women formerly associated with Al-Shabaab to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. These projects have harnessed digital technology for safe and confidential referrals, as well as using mobile clinics to reach survivors in remote, volatile regions. The lessons learned are continually collated into our knowledge hub to inform the next generation of practice. Excellencies, at this critical moment of gender equality backlash, rising reprisals, cascading crisis, and contracting aid budgets, We must stand together on the right side of history as partners of progress. As the threat environment evolves, UN action continues to hold a mirror up to the changing face of war, deepening knowledge on technology-facilitated violence and intersections with food insecurity and climate shocks. It continues to ensure that the UN system is equipped with information and resources to operate collectively and effectively. When I reflect on what is at stake, I think of the grandmother I met in South Sudan caring for a seven-year-old granddaughter who had been raped in the very displacement camp to which they had fled for safety. I think of the young woman in eastern DRC who was gang-raped by militia in retaliation for speaking out against sexual violence and driven from her home. I think of the Rohingya woman who said, "The sexual violence I endured broke my heart and my mind, but not my spirit." Unfortunately, such voices are still too rarely heard in these halls. As world leaders gather to confront the global challenges of our time, we cannot allow the plight and rights of survivors to be forgotten. To the many governments and esteemed partners present in this room, my call to action is twofold. First, ensure a survivor-centered, trauma-informed approach by integrating the UN Action Toolkit into all plans, policies and programs as the new global standard. Second, sustain investment for its implementation by providing urgently needed funding to the UN Action Network through its Multi-Partner Trust Fund to close critical protection and assistance gaps. Excellencies, in line with the theme of this year's General Assembly, that is how we will rebuild trust with conflict-affected communities and ultimately deliver for all. 81 years ago, this organization was founded to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. Today, that promise must include the persistent yet preventable scourge of wartime rape. Thank you.

Thank you, SRS G. Patten, for setting the tone with such clarity and urgency and for your inspiring remarks recalling the foundational promise of the UN Charter against the backdrop of all the negative macro trends the world is witnessing, which have turned the clock back on women's rights. As chair, you have consistently reminded us that when we center survivors, we move from passive sympathy to active empowerment. And that's exactly the spirit of the toolkit we are launching today. So with SRSG's call to action in mind, I'm now delighted to turn to the United Kingdom, which has been a driving force in elevating this issue to all the top tables of diplomacy, demanding accountability and deterrence. And I warmly welcome Minister Chris Elmore, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Special Envoy on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict. Minister Elmore, you have the floor.

Thank you very much indeed. It's a privilege to join you today as the UK special envoy on preventing sexual violence in conflict. The title of this event is one I strongly support: 'Inaction is not an option'. But what does that actually mean in practice? I would like to share four reflections. First, sexual violence is not inevitable, and it is not inevitable for a consequence of conflict. It is preventable, it is prosecutable, yet it continues. as does the impunity that fuels it. This needs to change. We need to move from commitments to action. That means equipping people with the knowledge, tools and partnerships they need to identify risks and prevent harm before it occurs. That is why I welcome the UN Action's new toolkit. Second, preventing conflict-related sexual violence is not only about protecting individuals from harm. It is about building the foundations for more peaceful, more stable and more equal societies. Whilst conflict-related sexual violence entrenches cycles of violence, fuels displacement and destabilises regions, prevention helps create the conditions for women's full, equal and meaningful participation in peacebuilding and recovery. Without their safe and meaningful participation, lasting peace will remain out of reach. Third, our work must be grounded in survivors' realities. We must start by listening. The UK survivor advisory group brings together survivors from across the world to shape our action, using their lived experience to help identify what works and challenge assumptions. Fourth, as the risks evolve, our response must evolve with them. Whether confronting the implications of new technologies, climate-related instability or worsening food insecurity, our approaches must remain relevant, agile and effective. Recent crises have reinforced the urgency of this work. In Ukraine, reports of conflict-related sexual violence as a weapon of war demonstrate the devastating human cost, with survivors requiring sustained access to justice, reparations and support. In places like Al-Fashir and the Zamzam refugee camp in Sudan, we have seen ethnically targeted rape and sexual assault on an incomprehensible scale, including against children. In Yemen, resumption of conflict, humanitarian pressures and protection concerns highlight the need to address risks before they escalate. Those examples remind us that prevention is not an abstract concept. It is necessary to reduce risk, strengthen protection and prevent harm. That is why the work of the UN Action matters. For nearly two decades, it has turned global commitments into practical action that delivers meaningful change for survivors. This new toolkit builds on that work. It helps us to move from understanding the risks of conflict-related sexual violence to preventing them. The United Kingdom is a proud and long-standing supporter of UN action, and we continue that commitment this year through our support of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General. The UK is also working through the International Coalition to End Violence Against Women and Girls to strengthen international efforts to prevent and respond to violence in all its forms. Conflict-related sexual violence does not happen in a vacuum. It is born out of the same social norms that tolerate gender inequality and gender-based violence. So, we should consider these issues as part of the same picture and draw on the lessons, partnerships and survivor-centred approaches that underpin the work of the coalition. I want to end by returning to the title of this event. Inaction is not an option. It is a choice, one that carries a significant cost. If we want more peaceful communities, we must prevent conflict-related sexual violence. And if we want more equal societies, we must ensure women, girls and survivors can shape the decisions that affect them. That is why prevention matters. Not only because it reduces harm, but because it helps create the conditions for lasting peace, equality and security. We have the evidence, we have the experience, we have the commitments. Today, through this toolkit, we have another practical way to turn that knowledge into prevention. Let us now ensure that we use it. Let us choose action, not inaction. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Minister Elmore, and for the United Kingdom's pioneering leadership on this agenda through the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative and as penholder on women, peace and security in the Security Council, so for forging those wider linkages. And collective security, of course, as we know, starts with human security based on dignity and freedom from want and fear, which the government of Japan has championed globally. And I'm now honored to turn to Ambassador Katsuhiko Takahashi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Potentiary for International Economic Affairs and Women, Peace and Security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan to speak about the innovative, long-standing partnership with UN Action and why investing in knowledge building pays dividends for protection and peace.

Thank you very much, distinguished participants. Japan is honored to participate today in the launch of the toolkit to support a survivor-centered approach. to preventing and addressing conflict-related sexual violence, or CRSV. This is an important step toward placing survivors at the center of all efforts, including those by member states and other stakeholders in global programs. Japan has been a longstanding partner of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, providing constant funding to its core budget as well as to projects implemented by its operational arms. With regard to UN actions, since 2016, Japan has supported catalytic programs in countries including Somalia, the DRC, Mali, and Ukraine. The toolkit launched today is the culmination of decades of UN actions work in this field. Japan commends UN action as a global knowledge hub on CRSD and hopes that the toolkit will be widely utilized by those working on this important issue, including practitioners and donors in project design, policy making, and so on. Excellencies, earlier this year, we welcomed SRS-G, Pramila Patan, on a partnership mission to Tokyo, to Japan. She clearly presented her strategic vision for the CRSV mandate to Japanese government representatives, the media and academia, which helped deepen understanding of this important issue in Japan. Conflict-related sexual violence remains a less visible, yet critically important challenge. Japan will continue to use every opportunity to deepen discussions and understandings of this issue and to work together with all of you to advance it as a global agenda. Thank you very much.

Many thanks, Ambassador Takahashi, for those thoughtful reflections and for your steadfast strategic leadership and partnership. Japan has been a leading voice on this agenda, both on and off the Security Council, with great global impact. And as UN Action, we sincerely thank the government and people of Japan. As we move to the next segment, Operationalizing Security Council Resolution 2467 and showcasing the toolkit to support a survivor-centered approach, I'm delighted to welcome the Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, Assistant Secretary-General, Narat Sai Gumbon Zvanza, who represents a founding member of the UN Action Network since its inception. And of course, UN Women was an indispensable partner in shaping and developing this important toolkit, which benefited directly from consultation and insights with survivors from Myanmar, Iraq, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere. So we thank you so much for your partnership and Deputy Executive Director, you have the floor.

Thank you. Thank you so much. My sister, my own USG and chair of the UN Action Network. You continue to lead us with courage. And the launch of this toolkit is also about the courage to bring the voice of the survivors at the center and to bring their experiences to be part of the discussion. When often we talk about political will, it's a word we use. This is the political will I see in this room. To say in the midst of all the priorities of this day today of the UN General Assembly, you choose to be here. You choose to be here to enable us to realize and recognize the ethos of the United Nations Charter, which is we, the people. And you are placing we, the women survivors of sexual violence in conflict, at the heart of the UN General Assembly discussion. You are lifting that which is the inherent ethos of the UN Declaration on Human Rights, that we are born with inherent dignity and rights, and positioning that clearly in the UN General Assembly 81 session. So, for us as UN women, this is not just about the toolkit. This is about how we translate the ethos of the United Nations Charter, the Bill of Rights, Security Council Resolution 1325 into the lives of women. So, thank you. Thank you so much for this solid expression of commitment. Today, over 756 million women and girls live in conflict-affected zones, in war. Their bodies are not caught just in the crossfire. They are deliberately targeted. There's an intentionality. Sexual violence in conflict is a calculated strategy to strip women of their power, their dignity, and their future. It is designed to destroy communities, silence resistance, terrorize populations into submission by attacking their bodies. The attacker seeks to break the spirit. It is more than just about the body. We are talking about massive crimes against women, not a single anecdotal, but massive, massive crimes against women. And we are talking about rape. And yet, those who dare to claim their power, The survivors, the local women's rights defenders, the civil society briefers are often punished for speaking out because they are speaking about power and at times people with guns in their own community and they dare to speak out. And those who come for the Security Council briefings, they always report, most of them, reprisals and intimidation. So protection in the toolkit is primary to us fighting impunity and accessing justice. Because the risks are many and are huge for the women who dare, we must protect them, amplify their voices, and ensure that their testimonies carries the weight it deserves. The lawyer in me feels that that weight that we are talking about is also the weight in the courts. We must preserve the evidence, justice must be seen. That is the foundation within which this toolkit speaks to the power of listening. The power of listening as institutions, as individuals, and as actors. Therefore, we recommend a couple of key recommendations, and which is within the toolkit. The informed voice and autonomy. The power begins with the survivors having control of their healing process. That control requires confidentiality, informed consent, non-discrimination, physical safety. No one should be able to speak. Healing takes time and it takes somebody's timeline. I was born during the war. I'm speaking about experiences that my family went through. 46 years down the line, my sisters and my friends are yet to fully tell the story. because it's painful. So we are talking about survivors having to get support over the lifetime and not in a short time. This toolkit highlights the power that requires resourcing. Access to emergency health services, specialized psychosocial support, legal assistance, and economic empowerment must be treated as basic necessities and not as extras. When a survivor has the means to rebuild her life, she regains the power to shape her own destiny. Therefore, for us, prevention is critical. We may tell the numbers of the survivors, but we must prevent. And the first step of preventing sexual violence in conflict is to stop the war. Let's stop the war. Not just a ceasefire, but a total stop of the war. That's the essence of the United Nations. But where the wars are happening, let's prevent even within that context. We have just issued the gender snapshot report as UN Women who can share with the data. But this toolkit for us is speaking to what we can do in a tangible, practical way in countries where UN Women and the UN system is available. The stories are told, only last week I was speaking to the women of Afghanistan. including our staff, who said, "Can you create an empty chair for us to be able to be present even if we cannot be present?" It hurts. It hurts when women's own right to public participation, structural violence, rips your soul. So rape is more than just physical. When you are unable to be, it means your soul, your being is raped. Therefore, as UN women, we welcome this toolkit. As the UN system, we welcome this toolkit in ways that enables us to connect the prevention, the supported voice of survivors, the seeking of justice, and the rebuilding of our communities. It demands two things. It demands resourcing women-led initiatives in the communities, because that's where the woman is. That's what it demands. It demands strengthening institutions that respond to the women, but it also demands the resourcing. I'm speaking to my member states. We hear and we know that ODA is going down. We know the tough decisions you have to make. We understand. But it's also painful to see the increasing military budgets. It's hard when we know that military expenditure is creating these conditions of war. We need human security. We need a different form of security. That enables nations to speak to each other, trade with each other, and not throw and have drones against each other. We just create the conditions for the women to continue to be violated. One military helicopter less, more support to the survivors of gender-based violence, more support to education and health, and more support to the efforts of this toolkit. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Naritsai. It's always very moving to hear your passion and your perspective. As we often say in this agenda, the aim is not a war without rape, it's a world without war. And I really thank UN Women for bringing into focus the fact that structural gender equality, representation and agency is the best shield against the recurrence of gender-based harms. And the new gender snapshot rightly focuses on power. And this crime at its core is an abuse of power. And as UN Women said during the launch of the gender snapshot, we have to look at power and the cost to all of us when half of humanity is denied equal access to it. Turning now to what our concerted efforts as UN Action have achieved at the country level, we're very pleased to present a statement from Ukraine by Ms. Olga Chuieva, who manages the UN Action Joint Project, and will be accompanied by two CRSV survivors who work closely with us, Ms. Irina Dovhan, who leads SEMMA Ukraine, and Mr. Azhat Azatian from the male survivors network, Way of the Free. So if you could kindly turn your attention to the screen, we'll hear the statement direct from Ukraine.

Greetings from Ukraine. Thank you for the opportunity to share our experience of how a survivor-centered approach works in Ukraine. Amidst the relentless reality of war, our response is built on an unshakable partnership between the government, UN agencies, civil society, and survivors themselves. It was through these partnerships that the project supported by UN Action united six UN agencies, UNFPA, UN Women, UNDP, UNDC, IOM and WHO to build a lifeline covering comprehensive services, coordination, capacity building and innovative tools. This included digital referral and feedback platforms, an application for women paralegals and safe care tools for professionals. What was most important for us? that survivors were not only recipients of assistance or participants in consultations. They became co-designers of programs, trainers, paralegals, facilitators, and advocates for change, while survivor networks received support to strengthen their capacity for response. This is where we see the practical value of the new UN Action Toolkit. It helps us move from working for survivors to creating solutions hand in hand with survivors. And no one can explain this better, what this mean in practice, than survivors themselves.

Shirovita is Ukraine. For us, Ukraine, post-traumatic center, it means a very simple principle. Nothing for us without us. Наша организация работает с 2019 года. Это часть глобальной сети пострадавших. В рамках проекта "Поддержка сети действий ООН против СВПК" организация получила субгрантовое финансирование на развитие и расширение сети. Мы дойдя до новообразованной сети украинских правозащитниц, это дало им правозащитную поддержку по методу "равно равным". Долучалась до национальных консультаций, ещё до репараций, а также проходила и знаменитые тренинговые программы, то долучалась до их организации в качестве спив-тренеров, та фасилитаторок. Але особливо важным для нас было те, что мы могли не просто брать участие в уже створенных активностях, а вливать на те, как они разруляются. Так, например, представительница СМА стала спив-разработницей моей реабилитативной программы для женщин, якй постраждали від снпк а пйзнйше долучйвся до пйлотної програми сімейної реабйлйтацйй постраждалй бачать систему середйни ми знаємо що допомагає створйть довіру що може повторно травмувати а що насправді потрібно людині для відновлення ще одним дуже важлйвим для нас прикладом того як голоси постраждалих Может выходить далеко за межи, окремых программ, став документальный фильм Следы членкини, сама Украина, режиссерки Алисы Коваленко. Він створеный разом з нашей организацией. Фильм рассказывает про досвід, женок и экипа режисс, НПК. и был выбран украинским оскаровским комитетом как фильм претендент от Украины на 99-ю премию Оскар в категории "Наикрасший международный полнометражный фильм". Для нас это очень важно. Отже, это пример того, как досвід пострадалых представлен с повагою до ихнего голоса та гідности. Як він може ставати частиною глобальної розмови про СНПк. тому для нас участь постраждалих це не окрема активність, і не формальна консультація. Це можливість впливати на програми, на рішення, і навіть на те, як історії постраждалих звучать у суспільстві на глобальному рівні.

Дякую. Наш досвід, як шлях у вільних, показує, що одним важливим результатом постраждало-центричного підходу He can help to turn a traumatic experience into leadership in the community. The journey began with consultations with the repair manager of the project, DIO UN Action. But after the consultations, the interaction has not ended. As a result of our innovation, Инициативная группа в Запорожье в летку 2025-го року зареестровалась в громадской организации "Шлях Вильны". Под дивный шлях прошли ещё две партнерские человеческие мэражи. Пизниши мы получились до пилотной программы семейной реабилитации в межах проекта. А далее мы начали претворять отриманный досвид и спроможности на конкретные изменения на местном уровне. У Запорожье мы рассказываем о комплексной помощи людям, которые пережили плен, и их родным, психологическую реабилитацию, юридический сопровождение и социальную реинтеграцию. За 5 месяцев работы, до помощи через наш центр, отыскали более 500 родных пленных. Мы прошли путь от людей, которые пережили насилие, до тех, кто сегодня сидит за один стол с представителями областной власти. advocating the place of funding for treatment, medication and physical rehabilitation of the injured. For us, the path from consultation to self-organization, and from self-organization to real influence on the decision-making process, is shortened. Today, we are not just designated, but we have become known. We ourselves formulate decisions that help to rebuild our Ukraine.

What we have heard today clearly demonstrates the importance of meaningful survivor engagement and the role that international projects and global platforms can play in making this possible. The joint support provided across UN Action, including targeted capacity building from UN Women and IOM, didn't end when the project cycle closed. It planted seeds that continue to grow into national policy, community support centers, and global advocacy platforms like Tracy's movie. The work continues, and it is therefore critical that international support to Ukraine, including support to survivor-led organizations and networks, continues as well. It is equally important for us to preserve this space for mutual learning where Ukraine's experience and above all the voices of survivors themselves can become a part of a global exchange. On behalf of all partners, thank you for your support and for your cooperation.

We deeply appreciate the work of Olga from UNFPA Ukraine and Irina and Asnat for their words and their work enriching our collective efforts under UN Action auspices. And survivors such as those we've just heard from are the reason this agenda exists. As UN Action, our goal is to translate groundbreaking resolutions into solutions on the ground, which is why the launch of this toolkit today represents such a milestone in the evolution of this agenda. And speaking of UN action is at the frontier of innovation on this issue in terms of driving the field forward, addressing new and emerging challenges and intersections for a more comprehensive response. And to bring into focus the intersection with the promise and perils of digital technology, including the issue of technology-facilitated violence, I'm now pleased to introduce Minister Ulpi Huopainen, Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Secretary and Security Policy of Finland. Excellencies, Thank you for joining us. You have the floor.

Thank you very much, Excellencies, dear friends. I'm very honored to be speaking here today, and thank you for the invitation. While the theme is the grimmest, the determination in this room needs to give us both hope and energy to carry these ideas forward. Indeed, inaction is not an option. We need to be action-oriented when tackling technology-facilitated gender-based violence in conflict. And I hope I am able to offer a few concrete examples of what can be done. We all know this. We are living through a period of unprecedented insecurity. The number of active armed conflicts has more than doubled since 2010, and nearly 680 million women and girls About one in six worldwide now live within 50 kilometers of deadly conflict. This exposes them to heightened risks of violence, displacement, and insecurity. Armed conflicts are no longer fought only on the battlefield. Digital spaces are increasingly being used to target women and girls through harassment, hate speech, intimidation, and other forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence. For women peacebuilders, human rights defenders and activists, online attacks have become another frontline in conflict, undermining both their safety and their participation in public life. Digital tools are increasingly used as a means for stalking, hacking, grooming, sexual harassment, video and image-based abuse, and more. Those most at risk of technology-facilitated gender-based violence are young women and girls, women who face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, such as women with disabilities, and women in public and political life. Preventing and eliminating technology-facilitated gender-based violence is a priority for Finland. Digital spaces must be safe for women and girls in all their diversity to fully participate in society. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence is as harmful and condemnable as offline gender-based violence. The digital space, the second battlefield, targets women disproportionately, but digital tools and technologies can also be a transformative force for advancing gender equality. When human rights are embedded in digital policies and technology development, technology has the potential to enhance the participation of women. Dear friends, let me offer a few examples. People affected by conflict need safe and reliable digital systems that allow them to access services, verify their identity, and exercise their rights without being exposed to additional risks. This is especially critical for survivors of sexual violence, displaced persons, women peacebuilders, and human rights defenders whose personal data and online activities may expose them to further harm if not adequately protected. Technologies such as satellite data, geospatial solutions, Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics can help identify emerging risks of conflict-related sexual violence earlier and enable preventive action before violence occurs. This can help shift the focus from responding to violence to preventing it. Digital services can also strengthen survivor-centered responses by connecting women and girls to sexual and reproductive health services, psychological support, legal assistance, and information, even where conflict has destroyed infrastructure or made movement unsafe. At the same time, secure digital documentation tools can support accountability efforts, while digital platforms can amplify the voices of women women peacebuilders and local communities, in line with the Women, Peace and Security agenda. Digital platforms offer a real opportunity to help realize sexual and reproductive health and rights in conflict settings, giving survivors a safer, more anonymous way to exercise their right to information, care and choice. through telehealth referral pathways and access to emergency contraception, even when reaching a physical clinic is too dangerous. Digital platforms can also help realize these rights more fully by linking health, psychosocial and legal support together and reaching displaced or hard to reach populations who are too often left out. But rights can't be realized through platforms that put people at risk. So strong privacy and security safeguards have to be built in from the start. Many encouraging examples of the use of technology in conflict settings to advance women's broader inclusion already exist. CMI, Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, has applied AI to its peace mediation efforts to bring solutions to the decade-long conflict in Yemen. Peacebuilding actors used a WhatsApp chatbot and AI-powered analysis tools - to gather and analyse perspectives from communities across conflict lines. By enabling participation through text and voice messages - and processing large volumes of qualitative data, the technology helped reach remote and traditionally underrepresented groups, demonstrating how digital tools can support more inclusive peace processes. Technology alone does not cut it. We need strong legal frameworks, increasing awareness and capabilities of relevant authorities, accountability of digital platforms, and dedicated support services for survivors of violence. It is also important to enhance digital skills, media and information literacy, and empathy skills, all needed to navigate the digital world safely and respectfully. Finland builds on our experience in secure digital connectivity, digital public services, data protection, inclusive digitalization, and human rights-based AI governance. The value of technology lies ultimately in how it is designed, governed, and used. Technologies that are developed with strong safeguards, respect for human rights and gender equality, and robust data protection can support prevention, protection, and accountability. Without these foundations, the same technologies will create new risks and vulnerabilities. Dear friends, Technology is not neutral. It can be used to harm, intimidate, and silence, but it can also be used to protect, empower, and give voice to the most affected by conflict and violence. So let us make smart choices. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Excellency, for connecting us with the topic of digital technology and AI, which is very much in focus this UNGA season. And we really appreciate Finland's forward-looking insights to help us harness technology for the best, rather than allowing technology-facilitated gender-based violence to proliferate. And we need to keep this issue squarely on the international protection agenda to try to make cyberspace a safe space for the world's women and girls. Turning to another timely and critical nexus, I'm delighted to invite Ms. Ana Isabel Xavier, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Portugal, to address how acute environmental and climate shocks and resource competition compound protection risks. Excellency, you have the floor.

So much, uh, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to express my sincere appreciation to the UN Special Representative for convening this critical high-level event and for your introductory remarks. Portugal also warmly welcomes the launch of the toolkit to support a survivor-centered approach to preventing and addressing conflict-related sexual violence. This initiative marks a crucial step towards operationalizing our shared commitments. We all agree that inaction is simply not an option. Preventing and addressing conflict-related sexual violence is a collective moral and legal duty. to restore dignity and secure justice. Our actions must remain uncompromisingly survivor-centered, anchored in robust accountability and holistic support. Excellencies, we must confront a stark and undeniable reality, the direct nexus between food insecurity and conflict-related sexual violence. The evidence is clear. Nearly two-thirds of the conflict-affected settings listed in the Secretary-General's report on conflict-related sexual violence overlap with the most severe hunger hotspots identified by the WFP and FAO. This creates a devastating vicious cycle. Climate shocks and resource scarcity aggravate food insecurity, heightening structural vulnerabilities and significantly increasing the risk of exposure to sexual violence. Conversely, the threat or occurrence of sexual violence severely restricts access to land, to water, and essential livelihoods, driving communities deeper into acute hunger. as you, Excellency, also mentioned very well. Consequently, comprehensive prevention strategies must integrate safe access to basic resources, particularly within conflict affected and displacement settings. Ladies and gentlemen, effectively countering conflict-related sexual violence demands a coordinated, multi-sectoral approach across the humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding nexus. This response must be informed by empirical field data and led by the lived experiences and voices of survivors, as we have heard before as well. To achieve this, sustained political commitment and dedicated investment in evidence-based prevention are indispensable, particularly through supporting UN action and its vital system-wide coordinated mandate. Portugal stands firmly committed to this mandate. We will continue to champion the eradication of conflict-related sexual violence, the protection of survivors, and the upholding of international law. including throughout 2027-2028 our mandate on the United Nations Security Council as non-permanent members, starting already next January with the presidency. I thank you.

Thank you so much, Excellency, for so eloquently expressing how food insecurity can be a multiplier of CRSV risks and harms, and for Portugal's commitment to addressing these intersecting crises as you take up your seat on the Security Council next year. I don't say non-permanent, I say elected member of the Security Council. So we look forward to working with you in that capacity for a more comprehensive approach to security that encompasses climate and food insecurity, as you've so eloquently and rightly stated. As we bring contemporary humanitarian crises into focus, I wanted to turn now to our colleagues at OCHA, another founding member and active participant around the UN Action Table, to layer in some frontline perspectives on translating guidance into operations. So I'm really delighted to invite Ms. Lisa Doten, Director of Finance and Outreach at OCHA, to brief us. Director Doten, you have the floor.

Great, thank you so much, Letitia. Excellencies and colleagues, as has been said before, we know that conflict-related sexual violence is not inevitable. We know many of the risks that allow it to occur. We also know that those risks become more acute when people are displaced, when protection systems collapse, when essential services disappear, and when women and girls are excluded from the decisions that shape humanitarian action. The question for us is whether we act on that knowledge. whether we organize, we prioritize, and fund humanitarian response in a way that actually reduces those risks before further harm occurs. That question is particularly important now as we reshape the humanitarian system through the humanitarian reset. The reset is about making humanitarian action more focused, more accountable to people affected by crises, more locally led, and more effective in an environment of dramatically constrained resources. But a smaller humanitarian system cannot mean a system that pays less attention to women and girls and survivors of CRSV. Gender equality and the protection of women and girls from gender-based violence must be central to the humanitarian outcomes we seek to achieve. The reset has reaffirmed that gender equality and protection from gender-based violence must remain core humanitarian priority, including through stronger accountability of humanitarian leadership. That means ensuring that our humanitarian programming is grounded in the different needs, risks, and priorities of women, girls, men, and boys. And when we're responding to sexual violence, it means starting with survivors themselves, their experiences, their choices, their safety, their dignity, and their understanding of what they need. And we heard some of those voices today. We cannot design effective responses for survivors without listening to survivors. Their voices and experiences must shape our analysis, our programming, and our decisions about where limited humanitarian resources will be directed. That's why the survivor-centered approach at the heart of the toolkit being launched today really matters. The toolkit aligns with OCHA's gender policy and reinforces a people-centered approach to humanitarian action. It can help us engage with survivors in ways that protect confidentiality and avoid re-traumatization, while ensuring that critical risks, trends, inform humanitarian priorities and resource allocation. This is also why OCHA is proud to be part of UN Action. We bring the humanitarian perspective to this collective effort, connecting what we know about risks and survivors' experiences with humanitarian coordination. programming, and financing, and helping turn knowledge into preventative action. We also need to protect the specialized expertise that makes this possible. At a time when every part of the humanitarian system is being asked to do more with less, gender and GBV expertise cannot be treated as an optional extra. We need people in our operations who understand gender and protection risks, who can work with survivors and communities, who can identify where our own programs may create risks, and who can help humanitarian teams act on that analysis. Expertise alone is not enough. It must be matched by funded services, clinical care, psychosocial support, case management, referral systems, safe spaces that all make response possible. Funding cuts are already placing that infrastructure under enormous strain. and the resets own evidence shows a decline in dedicated gender technical advisory capacity and humanitarian contexts. I'm particularly pleased to be joined here today by one of our amazing women leaders whose work speaks directly to why this matters. And Tom Fletcher, the Under Secretary General, had invited five local leaders from different countries, and we have Halyna here, Skypowska, who's executive director of the Ukrainian Foundation for Public Health and country director of Health Right International. I think many of you know her. She was greeting many people as she has come to CSW and is a leading voice for this cause. She brings a very compelling perspective and experience of a women-led organization that works directly with survivors and communities affected by conflict and crisis. Her presence this week during the General Assembly is to ensure that what we talk about is grounded in the reality of women-led organizations, where they operate under extremely difficult and dangerous settings. And her presence serves as a reminder that her perspective and that of all women-led organizations globally must be central to these conversations, not only because of critical services they provide to survivors, but because the knowledge, the trust, and expertise they bring from working every day within affected communities. And we must invest in women led organizations. They're not simply implementing partners. Many crises, they're among the actors closest to women and girls. They understand changing protection risks. They hold the trust of the communities they serve, and they often remain present long after the international attention has moved elsewhere. That's why increasing funding and space for women led organizations is part of the gender commitments of the reset. OCHA managed pool funds are working to increase financing to women's organizations alongside measures to strengthen their participation in humanitarian funding decisions. This is about shifting power as well as shifting resources. Women and women's organizations need a meaningful place in humanitarian decision making, not simply to validate those decisions after they've been made, but to help determine the priorities from the outset. And this must extend beyond specialized gender programming. Gender has to be center across all humanitarian response. Food security, health, shelter, water sanitation, cash, protection, and other interventions all have consequences for the safety and dignity of women and girls. Every sector has a role in mitigating CRSV risks and ensuring that assistance does not inadvertently expose people to further harm. Moving from knowledge to action means letting what survivors have told us change how we operate, and judging humanitarian action in part by whether it delivers on that. The humanitarian reset gives us an opportunity to make those choices deliberately. With fewer resources, we have to prioritize. Protecting women and girls from violence, ensuring survivors can access support, and enabling women themselves to shape humanitarian action must remain among these priorities. Because ultimately, prevention is not about what we know, it's about what we choose to do with what we know. Thank you.

Thank you so much for bringing OCHA's frontline humanitarian perspective to the podium and for really collaborating with us to address the RSV as a civilian protection imperative over the years. And indeed, Under-Secretary-General Fletcher at the recent Feminist Foreign Policy Conference in Madrid said humanitarian operations are more effective when women lead. And that takes me to one of our women leaders in the field. We actually are pleased to welcome a statement from one of our senior women protection advisors in UNMISS, South Sudan, Sheila Kitaruth, who is navigating an extremely complex context and had sent us a video statement direct from South Sudan. If I can direct you back to the screen, thanks.

Excellencies, colleagues, greeting from Juba, and thank you for this opportunity. As practitioners in the field, we often describe ourselves as the foot soldiers of the women, peace and security agenda. Our task is to translate Security Council resolutions into action. and ensure that survivors of conflict-related sexual violence can access support that is safe, respectful, and survivor-centered. As the footprint of UNMISS reduced in South Sudan, one challenge has been ensuring that survivor-centered approaches remain strong and consistent. We have therefore invested in practical knowledge that can continue to guide those working closest to survivors. We have developed guidance to support safe and ethical engagement with survivors, including tools for civil society members of the Joint Consultation Forum on CRSV. We have also produced guidance on the responsible portrayal of survivors in traditional and social media, helping to reduce risk of stigma, reprisals and re-traumatisation. And we are documenting our journey with survivors, focusing on how we can move beyond seeing them as beneficiaries to supporting their agency and leadership. This work gives practical effect to Security Council Resolution 2467 and its survivor-centered approach. We were also honored that the UN Action Toolkit to support a survivor-centered approach was first piloted in South Sudan this past April. Our experience shows that knowledge products are prevention tools. They strengthen practice, help us recognize risks, and ensure that survivors' voices inform decisions. My appeal to this distinguished audience is therefore simple: invest in frontline knowledge, local expertise, and survivor leadership. support field missions, national institutions, women's organizations and civil society partners to turn lessons from the field into practical action. If we are serious about preventing CRSV before it occurs, we must close the gap between policy and practice. What we learn in the fields must shape global policy. And global policy must translate into the tools, partnerships, and resources frontline actors need to act. The next breakthrough will not come from another resolution alone. It will come from empowering those closest to the risks to help shape the solutions. That is how we move from knowledge to prevention, That is why inaction is not an option. Thank you.

We greatly appreciate Sheila's tireless efforts to ensure that local realities shape the global search for solutions and really underscore the need for sustained Women Protection Adviser capacity in all conflict-affected settings, as per the mandate created by the Security Council in 2009. To illustrate how UN action supports coordination, in other complex crises, I will now introduce a statement from Ms. Maya Petrovic, the UN Action deployed expert to the Syria response, who has been working to improve referral pathways for services at a critical moment of transition.

Ms. Petrovic: Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, I recently returned from Syria, where UN Action has been supporting efforts to better understand conflict-related sexual violence risks and strengthen survivor-centered responses at a time of profound transition in the country. From the outset of our engagement this year, it became clear that the challenges facing survivors went beyond the availability of services. Some health, psychosocial, legal and protection services existed, but survivors often did not know where to go, how to navigate different institutions, or how to access support safely and confidentially. At the same time, new national bodies on transitional justice and missing persons were beginning to take shape, creating important opportunities, but also new complexities for survivors seeking recognition, redress, and support. And this is where the UN Action Model adds value. Our role has been to bring together expertise from across the UN system, civil society, and national institutions to identify gaps that fall between mandates, and essentially to ask what those gaps actually mean for survivors. Over the past months, we have worked with partners to map services and survivor pathways across different sectors, identify barriers to accessing support and strengthen dialogue between protection and GBV actors and newly established national structures. We are also exploring a multi-sectoral initiative that brings together different institutions and service providers to connect survivors more effectively and safely to the

The technology is maybe not cooperating with us, so we might move back to the statements from the room. But just to say, Maya's statement really does show the value proposition of UN action in injecting rapid expertise into contexts such as Syria, but also Sudan, the DRC, and shortly to Haiti. We will deploy in the coming weeks, and we have supported some 70 joint catalytic projects across 20 diverse conflict settings to close protection and assistance gaps, as SRH Patton mentioned at the outset. So we'll now turn to interventions from member states who have inscribed to speak in the room. And I'm firstly pleased to give the floor to France, Madame Isabelle Rome, Ambassador at Large for Human Rights. Madame, vous avez la parole.

Distinguished Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, dear Pamela Patton, dear distinguished ministers, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to firstly express France's sincere gratitude towards the UN action against sexual violence in conflict, whose UN system-wide action is absolutely critical, and our utmost congratulations for the launch of the toolkit to support a survivor-centered approach to preventing and addressing CRSV. I would also like to acknowledge and thank the Special Representative Patton, and the team of experts on the rule of law and sexual violence in conflict for their continued efforts and meticulous work to support documentation and prosecution of conflict-related sexual violence. Sexual violence is omnipresent in conflicts. It is inflicted regardless of gender or age, affecting civilians as well as political prisoners and soldiers. Sexual violence in armed conflicts is inflicted deliberately with the aim of dehumanizing individuals and destroying communities. It can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or even be used for genocidal purposes. Today, such violence has been documented in more than 51 conflicts around the world and remains systematic. France has made combating this violence a priority, notably for our national action plans to implement the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. This translates first and foremost into reparations and support for victims, through support to the ICC's Trust Fund for Victims, to the Global Survivors Fund, and grassroots organizations. The fight against impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes is also an essential part of our commitment. It is our collective duty to ensure that survivors are welcomed, protected, heard and recognized as rights holders in order to break the cycle of silence, humiliation and perpetuated impunity. France consistently advocates for the importance of placing survivors at the heart of legal proceedings in order to provide remedies for those who are still alive. The UN Action Initiative sets an important example of how such approach can be the most effective. As a former judge, I have seen how justice can provide hope and rehabilitation when it listens and how it can cause harm when it forgets. Ensuring that victims have access to justice is essential for building peaceful and sustainable societies. Finally, we support the initiative of the Special Representative of the Team of Experts to structure the CRSV prosecution network. Their criminal pattern, you can count on our support. Justice cannot remain theoretical, it must take root in the lived experience of those who seek it. Everything must be done to prevent women, men and children from becoming victims for life, to protect human rights and to fight against impunity. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Excellency, for urging us to break the vicious cycle of silence, violence, and impunity. We have 10 extra minutes in the room as we were 10 minutes delayed from the outset. So I'm now pleased to turn to Norway, who is a very longstanding partner and indeed angel investor of UN Action from its inception. Deputy Director at the Department for Global Affairs, Hege Haaland, you have the floor.

Thank you. Thank you so much. So, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Norway, I'm really pleased to join this important discussion and reaffirm our longstanding partnership with UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict. We have been proud to support UN Action over many years, as you said, and really value its role in strengthening coordination and action across the UN system. We welcome the launch of the new survivor-centered toolkit. It is a reminder that prevention must begin by listening to survivors and affected communities. Survivors' experience, perspectives and priorities must continue to guide both policy and practice. And thank you for letting us listen to these very important voices today. We, from the Norwegian side, we firmly believe that conflict-related sexual violence is not inevitable. Prevention is possible when we invest in evidence, early action, protection systems and local capacities. Knowledge alone is not enough. It must inform concrete action that reduces risk before violations occur. This is why today's theme, from knowledge to prevention, is so incredibly important. As chair of the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies, Norway works with governments, UN entities, humanitarian organizations, and civil society partners to keep gender-based violence prevention and response central to humanitarian action. The priorities discussed today are closely aligned with the objectives of the Call to Action and our shared commitment to protect women, girls and other at-risk populations in crisis. At a time when support for gender equality, protection and sexual and reproductive health and rights is under increasing political and financial pressure, we must remain steadfast. Continued leadership, partnership and investment are essential to prevent conflict-related sexual violence and support survivors with dignity and respect. Norway remains committed to working with UN Action and partners across humanitarian, development and peacebuilding communities to turn knowledge into prevention and commitments into action. Thank you so much.

Immense thanks to Norway for being such a steadfast and consistent partner. And finally, I'm pleased to turn to Canada. Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada to the UN, Mr. Michael Gort, you have the floor.

Thanks, Laetitia. A slightly longer statement. I'll try to keep it short since I know we have to run. I think just to conclude today's discussion, I just want to thank all the speakers and partners for their leadership and steadfast commitment to preventing and responding to conflict related sexual violence through survivor centered approaches. And I think that today's discussion has reinforced a stark reality that conflict related sexual violence is increasing around the world. And it continues to be used as a tactic of war, of terror, of torture, and of political repression, leaving devastating impacts on individuals, on families, on communities, and also on the prospects for lasting peace and security. The Secretary General's 2026 report on conflict related sexual violence underscores the scale and the urgency of this challenge. And so too does the recent report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, based on findings from its human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine. I think that of the messages that emerged clearly from today's discussion is that one of the one of the key messages that emerged clearly from today's discussion is that those working on the front lines of conflict and humanitarian crises need practical tools, specialized expertise, and coordinated support to effectively prevent and respond to these violations. And I think that's why the work of UN action against sexual violence in conflict is so important, and why the launch of the toolkit to support a survivor-centered approach to preventing and addressing conflict-related sexual violence is so timely. And Canada is proud to support a new partnership with UN Action that seeks to strengthen the knowledge, the tools, and the operational capacity needed to prevent and address CRSV through survivor-centered approaches. Colleagues, the challenge before us is immense, but so too is our collective capacity to meet it. And as the SRS G said so eloquently earlier at the outset, CRSP is preventable. It is not inevitable. So let us continue to work together across governments, the UN system, regional organizations and civil society to turn commitments into action and ensure that survivors remain at the center of everything that we do. Thank you for your engagement, your partnership and your continued commitment to this vital work. Letitia, back to you.

And thank you so much to Canada for leading by example and really putting your money where your mouth is in terms of enabling UN action to really have an impact in Haiti, where it is so urgently needed and sexual violence is casting a long shadow over the lives and freedom and livelihoods of women and girls. So we look forward to implementing a new project with the generous support of the Government of Canada in Haiti shortly. So thank you so much for that inspiring intervention and for all of our partners for showing where there is a political will there is a way and we can really come together and stand on the right side of history on this cause. For our concluding remark, as I mentioned at the beginning, the European Union has really been the backbone of UN Action's knowledge building work and I'm absolutely delighted to turn for the closing words to Mr Olof Skoog, who some of you may know as the former Swedish Ambassador to the UN, who is now Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs at the European External Action Service, but speaking today on on behalf of the EU and ECHO as a whole. So over to you, Mr. Olof Skoog. Thank you.

Thank you so much. It's good to be back. But I have to say that, you know, having left the UN some time ago, it's easy to be disillusioned about the scourge that we are discussing today and how it's spreading. But for that same reason, it's very encouraging to be back and see that, you know, there's so much action taken by member states, by the leadership of the UN action, and I also want to thank you for involving all the testimonies from the field today. Look, to conclude this conversation, I just want to say a little bit on where the EU is trying to help on this. But first of all, thank you very much for organizing us today. And thank you very much to the UN Action and its family for very, very important work on conflict-related sexual violence. we are pleased to have contributed to development of this toolkit is one of the things that I think is encouraging, that while the scourge is going on, there is much innovation and effort to try to counter this. So well done, all of us. And I think what we heard today is that this toolkit is very well used and appreciated by those who are working in the field on the surviving-centered approaches across the humanitarian system. Gender-based violence, unfortunately associated to most conflicts today and committed on a mass scale, is a severe violation of the rights and dignity of victims and survivors, be they women, girls, men, or boys. The numbers are staggering, as we've heard. Yet we know that there is widespread underreporting of the issue in addition. As Pramila Patten often says, this is war's oldest, most silenced, and least condemned crime. And unfortunately, services for survivors are scarce in humanitarian settings, especially when funding is constrained. And that is why, in view of increasing attacks on gender-related programs, and worrying funding cuts across the board, we, the EU, will remain firmly committed to the prevention, mitigation of, and response to sexual and gender-based violence in conflicts. In parallel with the fight against gender-based violence, which also includes psychosocial support for survivors, through our external action, we are also supporting women's access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, I think mentioned by some of you as a very important aspect of all of this, and we believe that should go hand in hand. In 2025, DG ECHO and EU's humanitarian department allocated over 110 million euros to sexual reproductive health and gender-based violence, which we consider as life-saving priorities. This represents an increase, I'm glad to say, from previous years, underscoring our firm commitment to being a reliable, principled, and predictable donor in an increasingly fragile and dangerous world for all the victims. In this spirit, we have also just launched a new 10 million euro initiative, Shield, which will bring non-geographically earmarked and more flexible funding to support UNFPA in its SRH supply and surge capacity in emergencies, in addition to our current programs with them. And here I really want to stress the importance of women's civil society organizations in the fight against gender-based violence, as they are really the ones which are the closest to the front lines, as many of you have said and as we've heard today, and they have the best access to victims and to potential victims. In the current context where we see a shrinking space for many of these organizations due to funding constraints and also sometimes a politically shrinking space for civil society, it's all the more important that we as donors mobilize so that they're allowed to continue their essential mission. So just to conclude by recalling that besides funding, gender mainstreaming and the protection have consistently been part of the EU's advocacy efforts, including through dedicated events such as the one we're having today. And I again want to thank Pramila, PATTEN, UN Action, all of you at the head of the table, member states, for having set up this important roundtable today, and not least for having invited so many testimonies from the field. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for those incisive remarks and for the European Union's principled leadership, which, as you say, is needed more urgently now than ever. And as we know, history doesn't just repeat itself, people repeat history, or they learn from it and make better choices. So as we close this event, Excellencies, I just wanted to recall the words of the late, great Gloria Steinem in this very building, who said that gender-based violence is not only a women's issue, it's a world issue. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. And that is really the UN action paradigm of working collectively in partnership across sectors and silos for a holistic response. Knowledge is power, so let us use it to empower survivors as rights holders, stakeholders, and the co-creators of solutions. As you leave this room, please do collect a copy of the Survivor-Centered Approach Toolkit. We've made it pocket-sized so that it's easy to pocket, and it's the only toolkit that will not set off any alarms at UN Security. I will close the event here. If you have three extra minutes, we do have a short multimedia presentation on the last two decades of UN Action's work of building the prevention ecosystem as colleagues leave the room. Thank you so very much.

The earliest documents of conflict all record sexual violence, sexual slavery, rape.

Sexual violence has accompanied conflict throughout history, but it is not an inevitable consequence of war.

In every war, sexual violence has been used as a tactic to instill fear, to dominate, to displace population.

It is perhaps more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in an armed conflict. For too long, conflict-related sexual violence has been overlooked, underreported, and misunderstood.

So UN Action is the mechanism through which my strategic priorities for the mandate are implemented. And today, the network of 26 UN entities are united in enabling that survivor-centered approach. Now more than ever before, the UN is working as one.

Turning collective commitment into collective action. To deliver better, we must learn faster. By listening to practitioners on the front lines, UN Action transforms lessons from the field into practical guidance, equipping responders with the knowledge they need to better prevent violence, support survivors, and take action worldwide. Prevention does not happen by chance. It happens when warning signs are recognized, when risks are understood. For more than a decade, the Early Warning Indicators Matrix has helped practitioners identify patterns of risks and take preventative action. The matrix has been integrated into every single one of UN Action's programs since then. In fact, the network has continued to build on that foundation of knowledge, such as with the Mediator's Guide and the Framework for the Prevention of CRSV, both tools that are now essential for every practitioner in the field. The true measure of knowledge is what makes this possible. Across peacekeeping, humanitarian response, and national prevention programs, partners are putting UN Action's guidance into practice.

I have made survivors my moral compass. Everything that I do for this office, I am guided by these survivors.

Survivors are our compass. Their voices shape how we design and deliver our work. Drawing on years of learning across the UN system and lived experience from affected communities, UN Action developed the toolkit to support a survivor-centered approach. This year, the toolkit was piloted in South Sudan, bringing together community networks, civil society, and UN partners to turn principles into practice. More than a resource, it's a commitment to listen, learn, and act alongside those who experiences guide the path forward.

It's often said that resolutions are passed in poetry, but they're implemented in prose. And I think moving forward, we're really looking at an era of enforcement and implementation.

For nearly 20 years, UN Action has transformed knowledge into action. Explore our growing collection of resources and join us in advancing prevention. This evidence base, built product by product, partnership by partnership, is what makes enforcement possible. Go to StopRapeNow.org to learn more and to take action.