Systemic Gendered Violence in Armed Conflicts: How Peace Accords, Resource Wars, and Gendered Impunity Fuel a Fourfold Rise in Female Civilian Deaths Since 2021
Original framing: “Women and Girls’ Death Toll in Armed Conflict Doubles since 2021” — Global Issues
The doubling of women’s deaths in conflict since 2021 mirrors historical patterns where post-conflict peace agreements have failed to address gendered violence due to the dominance of male political elites. For example, the 1995 Dayton Accords in Bosnia included gendered violence clauses, but these were systematically undermined by the male-led political class, leading to a resurgence of violence against women in the 2000s. Similarly, the 2000 Arusha Accords in Rwanda initially included protections for women, but the lack of enforcement and the prioritization of economic recovery over gender equity allowed violence to persist. The current trend also reflects the broader historical pattern of how resource wars—particularly in the DRC, Sudan, and Myanmar—have exploited women’s labor and bodies as part of the conflict economy. The omission of these historical parallels in the UN report obscures how modern conflicts are not isolated events but part of a continuum of gendered violence tied to colonial legacies and neoliberal peacebuilding.
The doubling of women and girls’ deaths in armed conflicts since 2021 is not an isolated crisis but a systemic outcome of the convergence of neoliberal peacebuilding, resource wars, and the erosion of gender-inclusive institutions.
Historical patterns—such as the failure of post-conflict peace agreements in Bosnia and Rwanda—to address gendered violence due to male-dominated power structures have been replicated in modern conflicts, where women’s security clauses are systematically undermined by economic priorities. The role of climate-induced displacement further exacerbates this trend by concentrating women in conflict zones with no legal protections, while the UN’s reliance on top-down, bureaucratic approaches obscures the role of marginalized voices—such as women’s organizations in the DRC or Indigenous leaders in Maya communities—in exposing the root causes of violence. Cross-cultural perspectives, like the Maya *q’eqchi’* or the Xhosa *ubunye*, offer alternative frameworks for understanding gendered violence as a disruption of communal harmony, rather than an isolated tragedy. Future modelling scenarios suggest that without targeted interventions—such as gender-inclusive peace agreements, climate-adaptive WPS frameworks, and disarmament programs with gender-sensitive reintegration—this trend will continue to escalate. The solution lies in restoring the voices and knowledge of marginalized communities, integrating Indigenous and traditional conflict resolution strategies, and holding powerful actors accountable for the structural injustices that perpetuate violence.