Digital violence goes even further than online harassment or extortion. Millions of girls are affected each year by child sexual exploitation and abuse through digital means. PHOTO:Annanahabed/Adobe Stock
Violence against women and girls remains one of the most prevalent and pervasive human rights violations in the world.
Globally, almost one in three women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both, at least once in their life.
What was once hailed as a vehicle for empowerment has, for millions of women and girls, become a source of fear. Fuelled by artificial intelligence, anonymity, and weak accountability, online abuse is rapidly escalating.
Yet, 1.8 billion women and girls still lack legal protection from online harassment and other forms of technology-facilitated abuse.
The alarm is being sounded this week by the UN agency for women’s rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment (UN Women) as the 16 Days of Activism campaign begins, calling for urgent action against soaring digital violence.
New report warns more children are at risk of falling into poverty as global funding cuts, conflict and climate threaten access to services crucial for health and wellbeing.
UNICEF/UNI630167/Frank Dejongh
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NEW YORK – More than 1 in 5 children in low- and middle-income countries – or 417 million – are severely deprived in at least two vital areas critical for their health, development, and wellbeing, according to UNICEF’s flagship report issued on World Children’s Dayobserved on 20 November 2025.
(UN News)* — Seventeen civilians, including women in labour and patients receiving care, were slaughtered inside a Catholic Church-run health centre in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last week.
The UN described it as one of the most appalling attacks in a new wave of violence by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed extremist rebel group.
Four wards housing patients were set ablaze during the assault in Byambwe, a remote community about 60 kilometres west of Lubero in the restive North Kivu province, which has been plagued by fighting between a plethora of armed groups and national security forces for years.
(UN News)* — Ongoing attacks and airstrikes attributed to Israeli forces in Gaza continue to kill and maim people of all ages in the shattered enclave despite an agreed ceasefire, UN agencies said on Friday [].
UN News | Destruction extends across Gaza where UN agencies continue to seek out the enclave’s most vulnerable communities who have often been displaced multiple times since war erupted following Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel.
“Yesterday morning, a baby girl was reportedly killed in Khan Younis by an airstrike, while the day before, seven children were killed in Gaza City and the south,” said Ricardo Pires, spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF.
(Jerusalem) – The Israeligovernment’s forced displacement of the populations of three West Bank refugee camps in January and February 2025 amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on 20 November 2025.
(UN News)* — General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock warned on Thursday [] that repeated deadlock in the Security Council has become the “poster child” for wider global gridlock, undermining trust in multilateral institutions.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe | General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock chairs a meeting on the report of the International Criminal Court.
The UN was founded to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” Ms. Baerbock said, but the world body is struggling to meet that mandate when the Council isblocked by a veto from one of its five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the UK and the US).
(UN News)* — Living conditions for Gazans – particularly children – are still dire as temperatures drop and families return to bombed-out homes as the fragile ceasefire holds, UN aid workers said on Wednesday [].
Children’s Fund, UNICEF, highlighted the case of six-year-old twins Yahya and Nabeela who were critically injured by an unexploded remnant of war in the north of the wartorn enclave.
They are receiving mental health support from the agency and tarpaulins to protect them from the cold.
When the United Nations Environment Assembly convenes in December, a key topic up for discussion will be the mounting environmental impact of artificial intelligence. Ahead of those talks, here’s a look back a story first published on 21 September 2024.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 