According to Unicef, one in eight girls and women will be raped or sexually abused before the age of 18

One in eight, or 370 million, women and girls alive today have been raped or sexually abused before the age of 18, according to a shocking report by the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The number rises to 650 million, or a fifth, if “contact” forms of sexual violence such as online or verbal violence are taken into account, UNICEF said on Wednesday.

This was also stated in the report, which it described as the first global investigation into the problem240 to 310 million boys and men, or around one in eleven, experienced rape or sexual assault in their childhood.

“The scale of this human rights violation is staggering and difficult to grasp due to stigma, challenges in measurement and limited investment in data collection,” UNICEF said in releasing its findings.

It comes ahead of the first global ministerial conference on ending violence against children in Colombia next month.

UNICEF said its findings underscore the urgent need for increased global action, including by strengthening laws and supporting children to identify and report sexual violence.

The agency said sexual violence crosses geographical, cultural and economic boundaries, but most victims are in sub-Saharan Africa, where 79 million girls and women, or 22 percent, are affected.

East and Southeast Asia follow with 75 million or 8 percent.

In its data for women and girls, UNICEF estimated that 73 million, or 9 percent, were affected in Central and South Asia; 68 million, or 14 percent, in Europe and North America; 45 million or 18 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean and 29 million or 15 percent in North Africa and West Asia.

At 6 million, Oceania was the most affected in percentage terms at 34 percent.

In “fragile environments,” including those with weak institutions, UN peacekeepers or large numbers of refugees, the risks were higher, rising to 1 in 4, the report said.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell called sexual violence against children “a stain on our moral conscience.”

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell (pictured) described sexual violence against children as “a stain on our moral conscience”.

“It causes deep and lasting trauma, often at the hands of someone the child knows and trusts, in places where they should feel safe.”

According to UNICEF, most childhood sexual violence occurs during adolescence, particularly between the ages of 14 and 17, and those who suffer it are at higher risk of sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse and mental health problems.

“The impact is made worse when children do not disclose their experiences or keep the abuse completely secret,” UNICEF said.

Given the persistent data gaps, particularly on boys’ experiences, greater investment in data collection is needed to fully understand the problem.

UNICEF said it bases its estimates of the experiences of girls and women on nationally representative surveys conducted in 120 countries and territories between 2010 and 2022.

It said the estimates for boys and men were derived from a broader range of data sources and used some indirect methods.