Hostilities with weapons in 2025 highlight increasing disparities in the impacts of violence among diverse groups of people including women and marginalized groups. Asymmetry in civilian exposure to violence and deprivation are being demonstrated by conflicts in different parts of the world like Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar and in some areas of the Sahel. According to international surveillance agencies such as the UN Human Rights office, women have been reported to constitute close to 40 percent of civilian deaths in recent wars which is an alarming trend considering the figures recorded in the past years. This has been the trend in relation to an equal upsurge in gender-based violence and systematic discrimination targeting communities already vulnerable to structural imbalances.
Several UN agencies reported that the level of conflict-related sexual violence had risen by about 50 percent as compared to 2023. Severe crimes against the girls such as forced marriage and abductions with specific intentions increased by over a third in the same duration. These figures highlight the targeted gendered vulnerabilities as well as the severity of violence. Analysts operating in war-torn regions outline a tendency where women are subjected to direct violence, and at the same time, they receive the repercussions of failed states and increased displacement and lack of humanitarian services.
Intersectional vulnerabilities shaping marginalized communities
Marginalized populations including minority ethnic groups, LGBTQ+ individuals, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, internally displaced communities, and minority ethnic groups were the most vulnerable groups in conflict situations. Late 2024 and early 2025 UN briefings also continued to identify a lack of humanitarian service provision, with these populations typically being the last to get on receiving aid. The cumulative impacts of poverty, discrimination and displacement put whole communities out of protective measures that are meant to be universal in their application.
People with disabilities are also exposed differently during sieges and evacuations since they cannot get to accessible shelters, the evacuation strategy and lack of specialized medical assistance. The growing risks against the LGBTQ+ people were also seen in conflict environments in 2025 when the members claimed to be attacked by armed groups and were sometimes even targeted by the domestic authorities in the name of safety measures in wartime. Humanitarian researchers have noticed that such individuals will not visit the centers of aid because they fear being identified or being harassed which further marginalizes them.
Direct consequences for women’s health and physical security
The impact of conflict is always crippling in the healthcare systems, but the effects on the sexual and reproductive health of women have become extremely sharp in 2025. Rates of maternal deaths shot up in a number of areas where violence was protracted. Gaza turned out to be a highly mentioned example where tens of thousands of pregnant women had to endure extreme shortages of medical supplies, food and safe conditions of delivery. A case that was reported by humanitarian health organizations was where pregnant women very often gave birth in emergent cases without electricity, anesthesia or sterile equipment.
Armed groups still bring about sexual violence as part of their strategic efforts to terrorize the community and disrupt social cohesion. Reports on some of the frontline regions witnessed trends of forced pregnancies, trafficking and systematic attacks on women and girls. An investigator of the UN senior staff described the trend as an intentional attempt to destroy communities internally based on the wartime experience in the year 2024 and at the beginning of 2025.
Rising threats to personal safety and community stability
In addition to sexual violence, women have increased exposure to risk of displacement, forced labor and economic exploitation. With destruction of infrastructure or mass displacement of family, many are forced into risky economic activities. War further increases a disparity in economic resources, such that women have minimal access to financial resources, legal or stable employment.
In most areas women also get bigger burdens in taking care of the people in conflict where they often take care of the wounded members of the family, children and the aged. These positions present them with a higher risk as they travel through the conflict zones in search of food, water or medicine. Humanitarian scientists observed that the demand of taking care is directly proportional to increasing psychological stress and loss of personal security among the women in active war zones.
Marginalized women facing additional layers of vulnerability
Females of some marginalized groups, those with disabilities, members of minority ethnicity or LGBTQ+ individuals face compounded discrimination that prevents their access to shelters, medical and legal solutions. The concept of intersectional barriers has not started to charge the peacekeeping mandates and humanitarian planning, leaving protection with a continuous gap.
Structural exclusion from peace and security decision-making
Although women and marginalized groups face a disproportionate burden of conflict effects, they are still mostly not involved in political and security decision-making. Statistical information of 2023 and half of 2024 show women being under 10 percent of the participants in formal peace talks. A minor percentage of the peace accords that were put in place during the period contained some clauses that were concerned with sexual violence, gender equality or culpability of gender related crimes.
This underrepresentation restricts the areas of conflict-resolution models and minimizes the chances of integrating the lived experiences of the victims into long-term stability models. The organizations that fight the rights of women have consistently voiced their view that their practical experiences, which are usually needed to learn about the vulnerability on the ground, are rarely translated into a formalized policy or even security measures.
Resource constraints shrinking civil society influence
Civil society organizations headed by women have been at the forefront in provision of life saving services, filing of abuses and assisting displaced families. Most of them have however documented reduced funding, which would diminish their presence in the field in 2025. Reducing dependence on local women organizations undermines the resilience of communities, breaks survivor support networks and reduces the range of perspectives used to inform global responses towards the conflict.
Emerging international pressure for gender-responsive conflict governance
The world human rights organizations are making a stronger emphasis on gender sensitive humanitarian models. The UN Human Rights Office, international NGOs and regional agencies including the African Union are still clamoring for the protection of sexual and reproductive health services, increased support of victims of gender-based violence and enhanced accountability against the offenders.
Attempts at enhancing coordination between humanitarian agencies have been aimed at formulating the concept of inclusivity in the protection strategies adopted such that their needs are taken into account as opposed to using a blanket approach. Various peacebuilding efforts in 2025 have compelled the governments to consider the intersectional perspective of inclusion of gender, ethnicity, and disability in planning security.
Structural transformations in conflict response
Historical differences in the impacts of armed hostilities among women and marginalized populations indicate that world systems of human rights are not effective. With the dynamics of the conflict environment and the changing of frontlines, the weaknesses of the least able to defend themselves also change. It is no longer a question of how to reduce immediate harm but rebuild humanitarian actions and the governance mechanisms to capture the realities facing different populations. The path of global conflict protection norms in the future might depend on how states and international institutions respond to such demands.