According to UNICEF, one in eight girls and women have been raped or sexually abused before the age of 18

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – More than 370 million girls and women alive today, i.e.

The number rises to 650 million, or a fifth, when “contact” forms of sexual violence such as online or verbal violence are taken into account, UNICEF reported in what it called the first global survey on the problem.

The report says that while girls and women are most affected, 240 to 310 million boys and men, or about 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, measurement challenges and limited investment in data collection,” UNICEF said in releasing the report.

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.

According to UNICEF, sexual violence extends across geographical, cultural and economic boundaries, but most victims are in sub-Saharan Africa: 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.”

“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.

“(T)he impact is made worse when children delay disclosing 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 regions 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.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols and David Brunnstrom; Writing by David Brunnstrom)