More than 370 million girls and women around the world have experienced rape or sexual assault during their childhood or adolescence, according to an international report by UNICEF, which described this violence as reaching a serious level.

The organization stated that one in eight women alive today has experienced sexual assault before the age of 18. If other forms of sexual violence are included, the number rises to 650 million women, or one in five.

In this context, UNICEF’s Executive Director Catherine Russell described “sexual violence against children” as “an assault that our collective conscience cannot tolerate,” noting that most of these assaults are perpetrated by trusted individuals.

The Sub-Saharan Africa region is considered the most affected, with 79 million girls among the victims, followed by East Asia and the Pacific with 75 million.