United Nations Adds Israel and Russia to Its Conflict Sexual Violence List

The United Nations added Israel and Russia to its list of parties credibly suspected of conflict-related sexual violence, in a report that recorded nearly 10,000 such cases worldwide last year, Al Jazeera reported.

Inclusion on the list carries no automatic penalties such as sanctions, but the public naming can cause significant reputational damage for the states involved, The Hindu reported. Both governments have historically rejected such findings, and the report is likely to be contested.

The listing is a measure of how far international institutions are willing to confront powerful states. For a global readership, it is a marker of the strain on the postwar system of rules, the same erosion of shared norms that diplomats and investors cite when they describe a more fragmented and less predictable world order.