Unite for genuine peace! End the root causes of violence against women and children!

In 2025, the UN secretary general reported that 676 million women and girls lived within 50km of a deadly conflict event in 2024, the highest recorded number since the 1990s. The UN went on to report that civilian casualties among women and children quadrupled compared to the previous two-year (2022-2024) period, and conflict-related sexual violence increased by 87% in two years. Since 2024 the rate of deadly conflicts has only increased - with the US dropping bombs on Venezuela, Nigeria, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, and Iran which targeted civilians and led to political instability that continues to perpetuate violence against women and children. Reports have found that over 230,000 civilians around the world were killed in conflict-related violence in the past 12 months with the majority concentrated in Ukraine, Iran, Nigeria, Sudan and Myanmar. Of the 230,000 killed, over one third of the fatalities were from foreign military engagement. These reports do not include the millions of women and children who have experienced sexual violence and gender violence as a result of military aggression and conflict.

War and military aggression also deepen political instability and intensify the ongoing economic crisis that passes the burden onto working and toiling people, with particular impacts on women. Conflicts inhibit agricultural production, disrupt trade and supply chains, drive displacement, and divert public resources toward war preparations and armaments. More and more communities now experience extreme poverty and food insecurity in communities already struggling with poverty and economic instability. The combination of war, economic crisis, and political instability creates conditions in which women and children face heightened vulnerability to hunger, displacement, exploitation, and violence.

As we near the end of 2026 it is important that we continue to unite as members of the International Women's Alliance to take action to end the root causes of violence against women and children!

One landmark development this year was the creation of the US-led Pax Silica agreement, which marks a significant escalation in the US' preparations for war against China while trying to assert their dominance over their allies. With 24 signatories and one non-signatory participant, Pax Silica seeks to "decouple the US from their dependency" on China-dominated supply chains for semi-conductors and AI in order for the US to advance their military technology in an increasingly polarized world. The agreement spans the entire supply chain of AI and semi-conductor development from the extraction of critical minerals, research and development, manufacturing, and logistics.

Pax, the latin word for peace, is an insulting word to use for the US' new framework which is not only preparing the US for full on war against China, but will immediately bring more destruction and militarization to communities around the world. The plan requires an increase in large-scale mining projects, development of manufacturing hubs, establishment export processing zones and construction of data centers. This so-called development only serves the interests of the United States and their corrupt political lap dogs spread across the world, while the world's most vulnerable (workers, peasants, migrants, national minorities, indigenous people, LGBTQ+, and children) are displaced from their homes only to be employed in slave-like conditions in factories, processing centers, and foreign countries.

On International Peace Day, IWA asserts that true peace will not come through schemes that only seek to increase profits of the few billionaires and politicians who plunder the world's resources and sink their claws into the world's toiling masses. Instead just peace can only be won in the struggle for equality, national liberation, and genuine democracy around the world. We carry this demand for peace into our 10 Days of Action to End Violence Against Women and Children, November 20–29, under the call: Women Unite to End Violence Against Women and Children, Fight Imperialism! Women of the world stand to gain nothing but increased violence and vulnerability under the Pax Silica agreement and additional war preparations, but we still have a world to win through our local struggles, coordinated campaigns, and international solidarity that uproots war and militarism and plants the seeds of a genuinely peaceful future for the majority.