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Oxfam reaction to the outcome of the Santa Marta conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels

In response to the outcome of the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia, Oxfam Climate Policy Lead Mariana Paoli said:

“The fact that more than 50 countries came together to start developing a path to move away from fossil fuels must be celebrated. The People’s Summit demonstrated that there are many ways to implement a just transition, and the crucial role civil society can play in this process.

“However, it is disappointing that wealthy governments have still not stepped up to provide sufficient climate financing for poorer countries, which face the brunt of the impacts of the climate crisis, to make this move. Rich countries hold the historical responsibility for the climate crisis, therefore they must not only move first and faster but also provide finance at scale for others to follow them.

“A just transition must make rich polluters pay for the crisis they have caused. While households around the world struggle with skyrocketing energy prices amidst geopolitical instability, the biggest fossil fuel corporations rake in record-breaking profits, with most of those gains going into the hands of the richest 1 percent. Taxing the super-rich and big polluters to fund a just transition is the obvious viable solution that governments must choose.

“Santa Marta is just the first step of the process to a just transition. Between now and the next conference that will be hosted by Tuvalu and Ireland in 2027, governments must continue to build a momentum for a fair and equitable energy transition.”

Notes to Editors

In the context of the global energy crisis, Oxfam commissioned new polling by market research company Norstat in April 2026, from people in seven countries (UK, France, Brazil, Turkey, Australia, the Netherlands and Colombia). It found that three times as many citizens supported greater government investment in renewable energy compared to increasing fossil fuel extraction, and approximately two thirds (68 percent) supported increasing taxes on the profits of large oil and gas corporations to help fund the transition to renewables. Download the results.

Contact information:

[email protected]

Top CEO pay increased 20 times faster than workers’ pay in 2025

  • Global real worker pay fell 12 percent while real CEO pay surged 54 percent between 2019 and 2025.

  • At least four CEOs of major corporations each pocketed over $100 million in pay and bonuses last year. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan led the pack at over $205 million.

  • Billionaires were paid $2,500 per second in dividends in 2025.

  • The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Oxfam are calling for urgent action to rein in extreme wealth, including higher, fairer taxes on the richest and binding limits on CEO pay.

‘Workers’ wages have fallen behind the cost of living in Aotearoa, as they have around the world, at the same time as the bosses of our biggest companies gave themselves huge raises’ said Nick Henry, Advocacy and Policy Lead at Oxfam Aotearoa.

“The economy is being rigged against working people and it’s about time we tilted the balance back toward fair pay.”

Across Aotearoa, Workers’ pay declined by 1.3% in real terms from 2024 to 2025, while the top CEOs increased their pay by 45%.

Chief executives of the world’s largest corporations enjoyed a 11 percent real-terms pay hike last year, while the average global worker saw real wages increase by just 0.5 percent, reveals new analysis by the ITUC and Oxfam ahead of International Workers’ Day (1 May).

The analysis covers the top-paying 1,500 corporations across 33 countries which have reported CEO pay for 2025. The average CEO pocketed $8.4 million in pay and bonuses last year, up from $7.6 million in 2024. It would take the average global worker 490 years to earn the same amount.

So far, four corporations, including Blackstone, Broadcom and Goldman Sachs, have reported paying their CEO more than $100 million in 2025. The top 10 highest-paid CEOs collectively made over $1 billion.

The gender pay gap for the workforce across these 1,500 corporations averages 16 percent, meaning that these women workers effectively work for free from 4 November each year.

The growing chasm between CEO compensation and average worker pay is part of a long-term trend in which executives and shareholders are capturing an ever-larger slice of the global economic pie.

Global real wages for workers have fallen by 12 percent since 2019. This means they have effectively worked 108 days for free between 2019 and 2025 (31 days for free last year alone). Meanwhile, CEO pay has skyrocketed ―from an average of $5.5 million in 2019 to $8.4 million in 2025, a 54 percent increase in real terms.

The ITUC and Oxfam’s analysis of shareholdings reveals that the super-rich are receiving significant payouts from the corporations they control. Nearly 1,000 billionaires whose investment portfolios were identified collectively received $79 billion in dividends in 2025 —equivalent to $2,500 per second.

The average billionaire made more in dividends in less than two hours than the average worker earned in pay in an entire year.

Some of the largest payouts in 2025 went to Bernard Arnault, owner of luxury brand LVMH, who pocketed $3.8 billion and Amancio Ortega, owner of Inditex (Zara), who received $3.7 billion.

Payouts from corporations are often funneled into undermining workers’ rights and democracy.

  • Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, has used his wealth to become a major stakeholder in Paramount, which was purchased by his son’s company and includes major broadcast networks CBS.

  • In France, far-right billionaire Vincent Bolloré now controls CNews, and has rebranded it as the French equivalent of Fox News.

  • In 2024, Oxfam filed a formal UN complaint against Amazon and Walmart’s systematic human rights violations. Amazon and Walmart’s outsized wealth and power in the economy have enabled them to clamp down on unionization efforts and collective organizing.

Billionaires are also leveraging their wealth to buy political influence. A global survey found that half of people believe “the rich often buy elections” in their countries. Oxfam estimates that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people. Many super-rich politicians have sought to erode workers’ rights, cut public services, and deliver tax cuts to the richest.

“This analysis exposes the billionaire coup against democracy, and its costs for working people. Companies promise us a virtuous cycle, but what we see is a vicious cycle led by mega corporations —they undermine collective bargaining and social dialogue while billionaire CEOs capture the wealth created by productivity gains. The super-rich then use enormous resources to fund anti-democratic political projects,” said ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle.

“These projects shift the blame for growing inequality onto marginalized groups, such as migrants, women and minorities in order to distract from the true culprits: their rich benefactors. They divide working people while dismantling and undermining democratic institutions and promoting policies that allow the super-rich to become even richer, at the expense of workers’ rights, safety and livelihoods. They attack democratic organizations like unions and block any avenues for popular reform, ensuring that the vicious anti-worker cycle continues.”

Billionaire wealth has reached record highs in 2026. In just 12 months, they have gained $4 trillion —bringing their wealth to $1.5 trillion more than that of the poorest 4.1 billion people combined. There are 400 more billionaires compared to last year, and 45 of these new billionaires have made their fortunes in artificial intelligence.

“We can’t continue to let a handful of super-rich people siphon off the rewards of work that belong to millions. Governments must cap CEO pay, fairly tax the super-rich and ensure minimum wages at the very least keep pace with inflation and ensure a dignified living. And workers must be able to exercise, without fear or obstruction, their rights to organize, to strike, and to bargain collectively. They are the ones who generate society’s wealth; they should be able to claim, as a matter of justice, what they are due,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

“These measures can do far more than redistribute income; they can create economies that reward work, invest in communities, and hold powerful interests accountable. This is how we turn a system rigged for the few into one that works for everyone.”

Notes to editors:

New Zealand CEO pay increased 45% in real terms in the year to December 2025 (for the 21 CEOs in the NZX50 for whom data was available).

New Zealand Workers’ pay declined 1.3% in real terms in the year to December 2025 (comparing Labour Cost Index to Consumer Price Index).

Download the ITUC and Oxfam’s media briefing and methodology note for more information, tables and graphs.

In 2024, Oxfam submitted a formal complaint against Amazon and Walmart to the United Nations. Read more about surveillance and suffering at Amazon and Walmart warehouses.

The World Values Survey Wave 7 found that half of people believe “the rich often buy elections” in their countries.

Oxfam’s estimates that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people.

Download the ITUC’s report “Corporate Underminers of Democracy 2025.”

Contact information:

For more information or to arrange an interview, please reach out to:

[email protected]

Fossil fuel companies projected to earn almost $3,000 a second in 2026 while families struggle to afford energy bills worldwide

Six of the biggest fossil fuel companies are projected to earn $2,967 a second in profits in 2026, new Oxfam research finds, ahead of the first global conference this week on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia.

This marks an increase of almost $37 million a day compared to the 2025 profits of these six corporations – Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and TotalEnergies. Their total projected fossil fuel profits of 2026 are $94 billion: enough to provide solar power for the energy needs of almost 50 million people in Africa.

In the context of the global energy crisis, Oxfam commissioned new polling in seven countries. It found that three times as many citizens supported greater government investment in renewable energy compared to increasing fossil fuel extraction, and approximately two thirds (68 percent) supported increasing taxes on the profits of large oil and gas corporations to help fund the transition to renewables.

Currently, families around the world continue to be pushed into energy poverty as geopolitical instability, the impacts of escalating violence in the Middle East that has already taken many lives, and the sharp increase in the wealth of the super-rich in contrast to everyone else is leaving ordinary people struggling to make ends meet.

A huge proportion of the profits from fossil fuels are going straight into the pockets of the wealthiest 1%, based mainly in the Global North, who are profiting from the subsequent climate destruction these corporations cause while working to maintain global dependence on fossil fuels by monopolising wealth and political influence.

“A just transition away from fossil fuels must support people in poorer countries, who face the brunt of climate disasters while their governments are forced to spend more money on repaying debts than on education or health, let alone climate adaptation,” said Mariana Paoli, Climate Policy Lead at Oxfam. “Taxing the richest polluters who have no intention of investing in a clean future is central to a just transition. At Santa Marta, governments must end the pollutocrat era.”

Fossil fuel corporations and the super-rich that profit from them are entrenching inequality and turning their backs on the people most impacted by the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis. Just last month, ExxonMobil announced a significant reduction of a third of its planned investment in low-carbon energy projects and TotalEnergies refused to adopt a net zero transition plan aligned with 1.5 degrees.

At Santa Marta, Oxfam urges governments to:

  • Scale up public climate finance. Introduce measures to tax the corporations and the super-rich profiting from fossil fuels and the cost-of-living crisis, including through a Rich Polluter Profit Tax on fossil fuel corporations and an Excess Profit Tax across all sectors. They must tackle unsustainable sovereign debt through debt cancellation, fair restructuring, and by adopting a UN framework on sovereign debt.

  • Put justice at the heart of the energy transition through principles of responsible divestment. States and fossil fuel corporations must address the environmental damage and livelihood loss they’ve caused and centre the rights and participation of those communities most impacted by extractive industries.

  • Implement an equity-based roadmap to end fossil fuels that reflects the historical responsibility, financial capacity and fossil fuel dependence of different states.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Download our methodology note.

The global poll, conducted by market research company Norstat in April 2026, gathered responses from people in seven countries (UK, France, Brazil, Turkey, Australia, the Netherlands and Colombia). The polling also showed that support for taxing oil and gas corporations to fund the renewable energy transition crossed party lines. In six of the countries, there were more far-right respondents who supported such a tax, than those who opposed it. Download the results.

Oxfam’s report “Unjust Transition” outlines how the richest 0.1 percent are undermining efforts at a just energy transition through overconsumption of the carbon budget and investing in fossil-intensive industries. If just one year’s energy consumption of the wealthiest 1 percent were redistributed, it could meet the modern energy needs of all the people in the world without electricity seven times over. The cost of the energy needs in different countries is in the report methodology note.

See Oxfam Aotearoa’s report “Closing Time” on why Aotearoa needs a just transition from fossil fuel production.

Contact information:

For more information or to arrange an interview, please reach out to:

[email protected]

Nearly 80 percent of millionaires think super-rich buy political influence

  • New poll of 3900 millionaires in G20 countries also finds six in ten think President Trump has had negative impact on global economic stability

  • Nearly 400 millionaires from 24 countries – including Mark Ruffalo, Brian Eno, and Abigail Disney – sign open letter to world leaders at Davos calling on them to tax the super-rich

As political leaders gather for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, millionaires from around the world say elected representatives must tackle the existential global crisis posed by extreme wealth, by taxing the super-rich.

Polling on behalf of Patriotic Millionaires has found that 77 percent of millionaires polled from G20 countries think extremely wealthy individuals buy political influence, with 71 percent believing that those with extreme amounts of wealth can use it to significantly influence election outcomes.

Donald Trump’s presidency was also critiqued by the millionaires: six in ten polled believe it has had both a negative impact on global economic stability, and a negative impact on affordability for everyday people. But while his presidency has sent a clear warning sign to the rest of the world about the power of the super-rich, this is not solely a U.S. phenomenon. The danger of extreme wealth is undermining societies worldwide

The polling also found:

  • 82 percent think there should be a limit to how much money politicians and political parties can receive from individuals

  • 62 percent think that extreme wealth is a threat to democracy

  • Six in ten think that extreme wealth prevents ordinary people from living a decent life and is damaging social trust

  • 69 percent think the influence of the superrich over politicians is preventing action on tackling inequality

  • Only 17 percent oppose higher taxes on the very richest to invest in public services and tackle the cost of living crisis, with 65 percent supporting higher taxes on the super-rich

The survey comes as nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires from 24 countries, including Mark Ruffalo, Brian Cox, Brian Eno and Abigail Disney, have signed an open letter, Time To Win. It calls on global leaders attending the conference in Davos to win back our futures by taxing the super-rich.

The letter, coordinated by Patriotic Millionaires, Millionaires for Humanity and Oxfam International, states: “When even millionaires, like us, recognise that extreme wealth has cost everyone else everything else, there can be no doubt that society is dangerously teetering off the edge of a precipice. We are worn out watching this happen. We want our democracies back. We want our communities back. We want our future back.”

Mark Ruffalo, award-winning American actor and director, said: “Americans are confronted with the challenge of a lawless president who believes that the only limit to his power is his own morality and mind. But Donald Trump and the unique threat that he poses to American democracy did not come about overnight. Extreme wealth inequality enabled his every step, and is the root cause of the trend towards authoritarianism we’re witnessing in the U.S. and around the world. If leaders at Davos are serious about the threat to democracy and the rule of law, they must get serious about combatting extreme wealth concentration. That includes taxing wealthy people like me too. If we are to have democracy, not oligarchy, taxing the rich is essential to giving power back to the people.”

New figures from Oxfam International show just how vast the public to private wealth transfer has been over the last 50 years. The richest 1% now own three times more wealth than the world’s total public wealth. In 1975 the gap between public and private wealth was around $36 trillion, by 2024 the difference was $435 trillion and if this growth continues on the same trajectory, by 2075, private wealth will have surged ahead of public wealth by almost $900 trillion.

Public wealth includes assets owned by society, like public land and parks, hospitals, schools, road networks, barracks, social housing and law courts.

Brian Eno, musician, artist and member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, said: “It is impossible to ignore the brutal levels of economic inequality people are living with, and it’s only getting worse. Over the past few years we have felt the full force of extreme wealth stripping us of our political power, our economic security, and the public wealth we share as a country. The super- rich have been winning for long enough, now it’s time for everyone else to win. We want our security back, our communities back, the wealth of our countries back – and we want our democracies back. It’s time to tax the super-rich.”

Claire Trottier, philanthropist, business owner and chair of the Board of Patriotic Millionaires Canada, said: “It should be obvious to anyone, no matter how wealthy, that extreme wealth inequality is destabilizing democracies, economies, and societies around the world. You don’t need a crystal ball. It’s happening right now, and governments need to act with urgency before it’s too late. Taxation is the best tool the government has to constrain dangerous levels of wealth inequality, but as it stands, the tax code is only helping to make things worse.”

Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International Executive Director said: “Last year the rise in billionaire wealth was unprecedented. The super-rich are being given complete free rein, it is beyond comprehension that the richest 1% now own three times more than the world’s total public wealth combined. It’s a stark indictment that illustrates just how nonsensical the gulf now is between oligarchs and the rest of humanity. Governments must implement taxes on the super-rich now and prioritize reducing inequality, the world cannot continue on this obscene trajectory.”

Ends

Notes to editor

Time to Win letter and full list of signatories

Summary of G20 millionaires survey on attitudes towards extreme wealth – 3,900 people with more than $1 million in assets, excluding their homes, were surveyed by Survation between December 2025 and January 2026 across G20 countries.

Key results of polling conducted by Survation

●      62 percent of millionaires polled think that extreme wealth is a threat to democracy

●      81 percent of millionaires polled think extremely wealthy individuals can access politicians via their wealth

●      77 percent think that extremely wealthy individuals buy political influence

●      82 percent think there should be a limit to how much money politicians and political parties can receive from individuals

●      61 percent think our political leaders should do more to tackle extreme wealth

●      6 in ten think extreme wealth is harmful to democracy, factual media and social trust

●      6 in ten think extreme wealth prevents ordinary people from living a decent life and is damaging social trust

●      65 percent support higher taxes on the very richest to invest in public services and tackle the cost of living crisis

●      Only 17 percent oppose higher taxes on the very richest to invest in public services and tackle the cost of living crisis

●      71 percent think that extremely wealthy individuals can use their wealth to  significantly influence election outcomes

●      69 percent think the influence of the superrich over politicians is preventing action on tackling inequality

●      Six in ten think that Donald Trump has had a negative impact both on global economic stability and on affordability for everyday people

Contact information:

For more information or to arrange an interview, please reach out to:

Harry Stanbridge, Oxfam Aotearoa: [email protected]

Billionaire wealth jumps three times faster in 2025 to highest peak ever, sparking dangerous political inequality says Oxfam

Billionaires 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people

Billionaire wealth jumped by over 16 per cent in 2025, three times faster than the past five-year average, to $18.3 trillion – its highest level in history, according to a new Oxfam report today as the World Economic Forum opens in Davos.

Billionaire wealth has increased by 81 per cent since 2020. This comes as one in four people don’t regularly have enough to eat and nearly half the world’s population live in poverty.

The report “Resisting the Rule of the Rich: Defending Freedom Against Billionaire Power” analyses how the super-rich are securing political power to shape the rules of our economies and societies for their own gain and to the detriment of the rights and freedoms of people around the world.

The surge in billionaire wealth coincides with the US Trump administration pursuing a pro-billionaire agenda. It has slashed taxes for the super-rich, undermined global efforts to tax large corporations, reversed attempts to address monopoly power and contributed to the growth of AI-related stocks that have provided a boon to super-rich investors world-wide.

His presidency has sent a clear warning sign to the rest of the world about the power of the ultra-rich. Rather than solely a US phenomenon Oxfam’s paper demonstrates that rising oligarchy is undermining societies worldwide. Oxfam’s report finds:

  • The collective wealth of billionaires last year surged by $2.5 trillion, almost equivalent to the total wealth held by the bottom half of humanity – 4.1 billion people.

  • The number of billionaires topped 3,000 last year for the first time, while the richest, Elon Musk, became the first ever to surpass half a trillion dollars.

  • Billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people.

  • The $2.5 trillion rise in billionaires’ wealth would be enough to eradicate extreme poverty 26 times over.

New Zealand has four people with over a billion US dollars of wealth. These four billionaires together own more wealth than a third of New Zealanders, over 1.8 million people combined. At the same time, more than 900,000 people in Aotearoa suffer from food insecurity, over 17% of the population.  

“It’s obscene to see such a massive accumulation of wealth by so few individuals, while nearly a million people in Aotearoa can’t afford enough to eat” said Nick Henry, Oxfam Aotearoa’s Advocacy and Policy Lead.

“No-one should be going hungry in a society that produces so much wealth. We need our political leaders to stand up to the billionaires and multi-millionaires and say we’re going to tax this extreme wealth so that every Kiwi family can have a decent quality of life.”

“The widening gap between the rich and the rest is at the same time creating a political deficit that is highly dangerous and unsustainable.” said Oxfam Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

Oxfam estimates that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary citizens. A World Values Survey of 66 countries found that almost half of all people polled say that the rich often buy elections in their country.

“Governments are making wrong choices to pander to the elite and defend wealth while repressing people’s rights and anger at how so many of their lives are becoming unaffordable and unbearable,” Behar said.

Billions of people are being left facing avoidable hardships of poverty, hunger and death from preventable diseases because the system is rigged against them. Worldwide one in four people face food insecurity, having to regularly skip meals.

The rate of poverty reduction has stagnated with levels broadly where they were in 2019. Extreme poverty is rising again in Africa. Political decisions made by governments across the world last year to slash aid budgets have directly hit people living in poverty and could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030.

Civil liberties and political rights are being rolled back and suppressed; 2024 was the nineteenth successive year of decline with a quarter of all countries curtailing freedoms of expression. Last year there were more than 142 significant anti-government protests across 68 countries which authorities typically met with violence.

“Being economically poor creates hunger. Being politically poor creates anger.” said Behar.

The chances of democratic backsliding through, for example, the erosion of the rule of law or the undermining of elections is seven times more likely in highly unequal countries. “No country can afford to be complacent. The pace that economic and political inequality can hasten the erosion of people’s rights and safety can be frighteningly fast,” he said.

Governments are allowing the super-rich to dominate media and social media companies. Billionaires own more than half the world’s largest media companies and all the main social media companies.

The report cites Jeff Bezos’ purchase of the Washington Post, Elon Musk with Twitter/X, Patrick Soon-Shiong with the Los Angeles Times and a billionaire consortium buying large shares of The Economist. In France, far-right billionaire Vincent Bolloré now controls CNews, rebranding it as the French equivalent of Fox News. In the UK, three-quarters of newspaper circulation is controlled by four super-rich families.  

The report cites evidence that only 27% of top editors globally are female and just 23% belong to racialized groups respectively. This has seen their voices marginalized, while minorities like immigrants and people of colour are often stigmatized and scapegoated and critics silenced.

Authorities in Kenya have used X to track, punish and even abduct and torture government critics. A study by the University of California meanwhile found that in the months following Elon Musk’s acquisition of X the rates of hate speech increased by about 500 per cent.

“Our societies feel more toxic today because they demonstrably are, but not always for the reasons we’re being told. The outsized influence that the super-rich have over our politicians, economies and media has deepened inequality and led us far off track on tackling poverty. Governments should be listening to the needs of the people on things like quality healthcare, action on climate change and tax fairness,” Behar said.

Oxfam is calling on governments to prioritise:

  • Realistic and time-bound National Inequality Reduction Plans, with well-established benchmarks and regular monitoring of progress.

  • Effectively taxing the super-rich to reduce their power, including with broad-base taxes on income and wealth at high enough rates to reduce massive levels of inequality.

  • Stronger firewalls between wealth and politics including by tougher regulations against lobbying and campaign financing by the rich, ensuring more media independence, and banning hate speech.

  • Accountability for the political empowerment of ordinary citizens, including stronger protection for people’s freedoms of association, assembly and expression and for civil society organisations and trade unions.

Ends

Notes to Editor:

Contact information:

For more information or to arrange an interview, please reach out to:

Harry Stanbridge, Oxfam Aotearoa: [email protected]

25 years of UN promises to elevate and strengthen Palestinian women’s voices in peacebuilding have failed, says Oxfam

UN member states have wasted 25 years of potential by largely ignoring the crucial role that Palestinian women and girls should have played in building peace in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), says Oxfam

In a new report, ‘Arming Injustice with Impunity’, published in the wake of the October 31 anniversary marking 25 years since the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was adopted and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, Oxfam says that the UN’s initiative has not only failed Palestinian women, but has reinforced the status quo by failing to confront the root causes of violence: Israel’s illegal occupation and militarization, and the international
community’s complicity in selling arms and failing to hold Israel to account.

The WPS Agenda calls for women’s full participation in peace processes, protection from violence, and gender-responsive approaches to conflict prevention and recovery. While widely endorsed, its implementation has often been narrowed and inconsistent, particularly in contexts of prolonged occupation and systemic injustice.

Oxfam’s report, based on research conducted through consultation with partners and specialists in the field, outlines the devastating impacts upon women of Israel’s illegal occupation. In Gaza, almost 70,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 170,000 injured since October 2023, with women and children making up the majority of the casualties. Ninety percent of the population has been displaced, with Gaza left in ruins. Women face disproportionate burdens from the
collapse of infrastructure, healthcare systems, denial of maternal care, and increased exposure to trauma, starvation, and gender-based violence.

These harms extend beyond the battlefield: Palestinian women in detention have also been subjected to systematic abuse, including sexual and gender-based violence, which UN investigations have found may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In the West Bank, armed settler attacks – often backed by Israeli forces – have led to sexual harassment, threats of rape, and destruction of homes and schools. Women and girls live in fear, leading to school dropouts, miscarriages, and long-term psychological harm. Women human rights defenders face detention and repression, while internal patriarchal structures, exacerbated by militarization and unlawful occupation, further marginalize women’s
participation in political and public life.

Despite these challenges, Palestinian women-led civil society organizations continue to play key roles in providing education, protection support, and advocacy. However, the report criticizes the international community’s failure to uphold the WPS Agenda’s core commitments. States continuing to sell arms and militarily cooperating with Israel undermine their global commitments to women’s rights, gender equality and peace.

While the Palestinian Authority (PA) has adopted National Action Plans (NAPs) on WPS, their implementation is hindered by political fragmentation, lack of funding and lack of political will.

Originally envisioned to challenge power structures and centre women in peacebuilding, the WPS agenda in the OPT has been narrowed by militarized approaches and political fragmentation, that overlook the root causes that prevent full gender equality, protection, participation and justice, Oxfam says.

Oxfam believes that the WPS Agenda should return to its core: confronting militarism, enforcing international law, and prioritizing gender justice. For Palestinian women, peace requires dismantling Israel’s unlawful occupation, restoring justice and accountability and ensuring their
voices are central in shaping a just and lasting future.

For further details contact: [email protected]

Killer facts:

  • Almost 70,000 Palestinians killed and 170,000 injured in Gaza since October 2023 — the majority being women and children.

  • With 90% of Gaza’s population forcibly displaced, with no safe zones remaining, women face trauma, humiliation, and increased vulnerability to GBV.

  • Healthcare collapse: hospitals bombed, health workers killed, and maternal care denied.

  • Armed settlers commit gendered crimes including sexual harassment and threats of rape.

  • Women human rights defenders face arbitrary detention without charge or trial.

  • Civil society groups provide vital support but face severe restrictions under occupation.

  • The WPS Agenda has failed to address militarization and occupation in the oPt.

  • In a context of genocide and unlawful occupation, arms-transfers to Israel have played a part in undermining global commitments to gender equality and peace.

Notes to Editors:

The full report, Arming Injustice with Impunity: How Support for Israel’s illegal occupation and militarization undermines States’ commitments to gender equality and the WPS Agenda, is here

Another recently published Oxfam report on WPS, Beyond Rhetoric – Feminist Leadership for a Transformative Women, Peace and Security Agenda at 25 is here:

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000. It was the first resolution to formally recognize the unique impact of conflict on women and girls, and the critical role they play in peacebuilding and conflict prevention. The agenda is built around four key pillars: prevention, protection, participation, and relief and recovery.

Palestinian women face what has been described as ‘double jeopardy’: the combined impact of Israel’s prolonged military occupation and entrenched patriarchal laws and norms within Palestinian society. Discriminatory legal frameworks—many of which predate 1967—continue to restrict women’s rights in areas such as marriage, mobility, access to healthcare, and political participation. These are further compounded by the extreme challenges presented by Israel’s illegal occupation, including violence, displacement, and restrictions on movement. One particularly harrowing dimension is the treatment of Palestinian women in detention. According to a March 2025 report by the UN Commission of Inquiry, Israeli detention practices are marked by widespread and systematic abuse, including sexual and gender-based violence, which has intensified significantly since 7 October 2023. Women and girls have reported being subjected to forced nudity, threats of sexual violence including rape, and physical assault of a sexual nature during interrogations and searches. The Commission concluded that such acts amount to war crimes—including outrages upon personal dignity and inhuman treatment—and crimes against
humanity, including torture. It further found that these abuses reflect an intentional policy aimed at humiliating and degrading Palestinian detainees through sexual, reproductive, and other forms of gender-based violence, observed across multiple facilities and transit locations.

Contact information:

For more information, please contact: [email protected]