Report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict
Armed conflict inflicted excruciating levels of violence on children in 2024, according to a new report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict published today.
With 41,370 incidents, the highest number of grave violations against children in armed conflict since the inception of the Children and Armed Conflict mandate almost 30 years ago was verified in 2024. This marks a 25% increase compared to 2023 and the third consecutive year with alarming figures. Indiscriminate attacks, disregard for ceasefires and peace agreements, and deepening humanitarian crises, with a blatant disregard for international law and the rights and special protections of children by all parties to conflict, severely weakened the protection of children in hostilities. Conflicts raging across the globe kill, maim, starve, or rape children.
Countries with the highest levels of violations in 2024 were Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, notably the Gaza Strip, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia, Nigeria, and Haiti.
“The cries of 22,495 innocent children who should be learning to read or play ball − but instead have been forced to learn how to survive gunfire and bombings − should keep all of us awake at night,” said the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba. “This must serve as a wake-up call. We are at the point of no return. I call on the international community to recommit to the universal consensus to protect children from armed conflict, and on parties to conflict to immediately end the war on children and to uphold the core principles of International Humanitarian Law that impose limits on the destruction and suffering caused by armed conflict: humanity, distinction, proportionality and necessity,” she added.
This unconscionable number includes 11,967 children killed or maimed, as the most prevalent violation, followed by 7,906 incidents of denial of humanitarian access to children, and 7,402 children recruited or used in the 25 situations and one regional monitoring arrangement on the Children and Armed Conflict agenda.
Most grave violations showed an increase in 2024, including attacks on schools (44%), and rape and other forms of sexual violence (34 %). In addition, the number of children victims of multiple grave violations increased by 17% through the convergence of abduction, recruitment, and use, and sexual violence, representing an alarming escalation in brutality.
“Heavy bombardments, missile strikes, and the relentless use of explosive weapons in urban areas have turned homes and neighborhoods into battlefields. The widespread deployment of landmines and the neglect of explosive remnants have left entire communities contaminated, posing a constant threat to civilians. For children, the consequences are especially dire: these weapons alone account for one-quarter of all those killed or injured in hostilities,” said Virginia Gamba.
3,018 children were detained for their actual or alleged association with parties to conflict, an increase compared to the previous year. The Special Representative reminds that children released from armed groups or forces should be treated primarily as victims and that alternatives to detention should be actively sought, with the best interest of the child always in mind. She further calls on the international community to support age- and gender appropriate reintegration programmes, as an indispensable element for sustainable peace.
“Children living amidst hostilities are being stripped of their childhood. Instead of recognizing the special protection afforded to children, governments and armed groups around the world blatantly ignore international law that defines a child as anyone under 18. When we allow this to happen, we are not just failing to protect children – we are taking away their chance to grow up safe, to go to school, and to live a life with dignity and hope,” said Virginia Gamba.
A Renewed Engagement as We Marked the 35th Anniversary of the CRC
The year 2024 marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of OPAC, its Optional Protocol to prohibit the recruitment and use as soldiers of all children under eighteen years of age, as well as the 20th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1612 which established the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism as well as the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. Although the situation faced by children has deteriorated in several contexts, such as Lebanon, Mozambique, and Haiti, which witnessed a sharp increase in grave violations, close to 16,500 children formerly associated with armed forces or groups were provided with protection or reintegration support during 2024 in countries on the CAAC agenda, an increase compared to 2023, bringing the total of children released from parties to conflict since 2005 to over 200,000.
Engagement also bore fruit, and some 40 commitments were taken by parties to conflict, including handover protocols, capacity building initiatives, unilateral commitments, and bilateral dialogues, as well as the signature of action plans such as the one with the opposition Syrian National Army in June 2024.
Furthermore, engagement has also generated positive developments for children, including prevention measures in Iraq, Pakistan, and the Philippines, and, as a result, the countries will be removed from the Children and Armed Conflict agenda as of next year.
“With in front of us the record number of children suffering from the harms of avoidable conflict in 2024, we face a choice that defines who we are: to care, or to turn away. Childhood should not be a casualty of war. Peace should not be the price of indifference. We all share the duty to act—with urgency, with determination—to bring this suffering to an end. Not tomorrow. Not someday. Today,” she concluded.
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For more information:
Fabienne Vinet, Political Affairs Officer, Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict: vinet@un.org
