Today, we are on a knife’s edge. Conflicts are raging. Tensions are rising. Coups are erupting.

Authoritarianism is on the march. The nuclear threat has mushroomed. Climate chaos is inflaming security challenges. And mistrust is poisoning global politics — weakening our ability to respond.

The figures speak for themselves on the dire state of our world:

Military spending is at a record high. Displacement due to violence, conflict and persecution is at a record high.

And 50 percent more women and girls are living in countries threatened by fighting than in 2017.

Where wars rage, women suffer. Where authoritarianism and insecurity reign, women and girls’ rights are threatened.

We see this around the world: In Sudan and Haiti — women and girls brutalized and terrorized by sexual violence. In Afghanistan — the denial of women’s basic rights is wrecking lives and depriving people of life-saving assistance.

And women and girls fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are at risk of being preyed on by traffickers and abusers.

In the Middle East, women and girls are disproportionately affected by the ongoing violence, bloodshed and displacement.

This grim backdrop gives renewed urgency to efforts to ensure women’s full and meaningful participation in peace and security.

Twenty-three years after this Council adopted resolution 1325, women’s participation should be a default, not an afterthought.

But that is not the case.

Women are leading efforts on peace, justice and rights around the world. But still, far too many women’s organizations struggle to fund their essential work, as military spending soars; far too many perpetrators of sexual violence walk free; and far too many peace processes exclude women.

Of 18 peace agreements reached last year, only one was signed or witnessed by a representative of a women’s group or organization.

Despite our best efforts, women represented just 16 percent of negotiators or delegates in the peace processes led, or co-led, by the United Nations.

We live in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture. Centuries of patriarchy are a massive obstacle to gender equality and, in turn, to a culture of peace.

Around the world, women’s rights are under attack. So are the people that defend them.

Violence against women — both on and offline — is endemic; a massive barrier and disincentive to participation in civil and political life.

At the current rate of progress, it will be almost another half century before women are fairly represented in national parliaments.

Addressing this is not a favor to women. It is a matter of rights, justice and pragmatism.

Standing with women is good for the world.

We know processes involving women lead to more enduring peace. We know gender-equal parliaments are more likely to increase spending on health, education and social protection, and reduce corruption.

We need to implement the women peace and security agenda in full, now.

Because women have had enough of being shut out of the decisions that shape their lives. Enough of their work going unrecognized; enough of threats and violence; enough of promises left unfulfilled.

Women demand concrete actions to make real strides forward.

No more stalling, no more coasting, no more delays. The state of the world demands it.

And women and girls, rightly, expect nothing less.

Excerpts from the UN Secretary-General’s remarks to the Security Council on Women, Peace and Security, 25 October 2023.