UN says women pay highest price in conflicts, now in Ukraine

United Nations: Women and girls pay the highest price in all crises and conflicts from Myanmar and Afghanistan to the Sahel and Haiti, and “the horrifying war in Ukraine now joins that list,” the head of the U.N. women’s agency said Monday.

UndersecretaryGeneral Sima Bahous told the opening session of the Commission on the Status of Women’s annual meeting that with every passing day the war is damaging the lives, hopes and futures of Ukrainian women and girls.

And, she added, the fact that it is between “two wheat and oil producing nations threatens food security and access to essential services the world over” and “this, too, will impact women and girls the hardest.” Bahous didn’t mention men who are being killed and wounded in the Ukraine fighting, though she said: “I pray that they (women) — and all those who are experiencing conflict — will soon know peace.” The priority theme of this year’s two-week meeting is empowering women in dealing with climate change.

It is the first in-person session of the Commission on the Status of Women in three years after the COVID-19 pandemic. “As with all crises,” Bahous said, “climate change also exacts its highest price from women and girls.” (AP)