EU, UN demand global action on war-zone sexual violence against children

BRUSSELS/NEW YORK (June 18) — The European Union and the United Nations issued a joint demand for immediate international intervention to combat conflict-related sexual violence targeting children, warning that systemic impunity and generational trauma continue to rise in global war zones.

In a statement marking the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, EU Special Representative Kajsa Ollongren and UN Special Representative Pramila Patten condemned the use of rape, forced marriage, and sexualized torture by both State and non-State actors as deliberate tactics of war and political terror.

The envoys called for a global shift toward survivor-centered, trauma-informed frameworks that integrate child protection directly into formal peace processes and security sector reforms. To drive this, the EU and UN are deploying a joint capacity-building project to scale up information sharing across humanitarian and peacebuilding sectors, while pointing to ongoing institutional reinforcement initiatives in Ukraine as a model for local accountability.

Moving forward, the EU will leverage its new strategic framework on humanitarian diplomacy to enforce these safeguards, with leadership urging UN Member States to immediately translate international law commitments into sustained funding.