"The contention in Ukraine has spent the 100-day mark, we are confronting an expansion in charges of sexual savagery", - UN

The UN Security Council held a briefing on how the war in Ukraine affects women and girls. Among the main speakers of the event was Pramila Patten, special representative of the UN Secretary General on sexual violence in conflict. During the speech, Patten emphasized that she had been to Ukraine several times. ""The contention in Ukraine has spent the 100-day mark, however we are confronting an expansion in allegations of sexual savagery," she said.



Her office alone has made three statements since February, the purpose of which, among other things, is to ensure that the issue is not covered by silence and normalized by impunity.



Exacerbating the situation is that due to active hostilities, mass internal displacement, disruption of service delivery pathways and the stigma associated with sexual violence, victims are often unable or unwilling to report abuse to law enforcement or other authorities.



As of June 3, the monitoring group of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights received reports of 124 alleged acts of conflict-related sexual violence against women, girls, men and young men in Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv , Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Zakarpattia and Zhytomyr areas. 56 out of 124 cases concern women and girls; 49 – children (41 girls, 7 boys); 19 - men.



At the same time, she noted: as the experience of other conflicts shows, data on sexual violence are often massively underestimated. Therefore, "available data is only the tip of the iceberg."



As a reminder to the Russian Federation, Security Council resolution 1820 recognized that rape and other forms of sexual violence may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. In addition, sexual violence is prohibited under international humanitarian law. Russia should take measures within its power to ensure compliance with this resolution and international humanitarian law. Russia must stop rape, violence and atrocities in its ranks," the American ambassador said.