Men and boys are subjected to conflict-related sexual violence in wars and detention facilities, the United Nations has found, though the scale of the abuse remains largely undocumented. A released Ukrainian prisoner of war described experiencing rape, forced nudity, beatings and electric shocks during three years in detention, part of a documented pattern across multiple conflicts.
Women and girls continue to bear the overwhelming burden of conflict-related sexual violence, accounting for 93 per cent of verified victims in 2024 compared with seven per cent who were men and boys, according to the UN Secretary-General's report. However, the figures do not capture the full extent of the harm, with estimates suggesting that 90 to 95 per cent of sexual abuse against men and boys in conflict settings goes unrecorded.
In Ukraine, the UN verified 310 cases of conflict-related sexual violence, with 280 involving men, many of them prisoners of war or civilian detainees. The documented abuses included rape, forced nudity, beatings and electric shocks used to punish, humiliate and extract information. The pattern extends beyond Ukraine, with verified cases documented in Gaza, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Yemen and Haiti, among other conflicts.
Barriers to reporting include social expectations around masculinity, homophobia, fear of appearing weak and limited institutional attention to male survivors, according to research by the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. How cases are described also affects identification; the Secretary-General's report noted that men and boys often describe sexual violence as torture, making it harder for humanitarian and justice systems to identify specific needs associated with the abuse.
UN entities are improving identification and training frontline professionals to support survivors through specialized care, legal assistance and survivor-centred services. In Ukraine, a UN-supported project assisted 160 survivors in 2025, including 69 men, through psychological counselling, rehabilitation and tailored assistance, while helping establish male survivor networks offering peer support.
