The UN Secretary-General’s Report on Children and Armed Conflict published on 13 June 2024 states that in 2023, violence against children in armed conflict reached extreme levels, with a shocking 21 per cent increase in grave violations. Children bore the brunt of multiplying and escalating crises that were marked by a complete disregard for child rights, notably the inherent right to life.

The number of instances of killing and maiming increased by a staggering 35 per cent. Children were killed and maimed in unprecedented numbers in devastating crises in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, notably in the Gaza Strip, in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Somalia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Ukraine, among many other situations.

The United Nations verified 32,990 grave violations, of which 30,705 were committed in 2023 and 2,285 were committed earlier but verified in 2023. Violations affected 22,557 children (15,847 boys, 6,252 girls, 458 sex unknown) in 25 situations
and one regional monitoring arrangement covering the Lake Chad basin region.

The highest numbers of violations were the killing (5,301) and maiming (6,348) of 11,649 children, followed by the recruitment and use of 8,655 children, 5,205 verified incidents of the denial of humanitarian access and the abduction of 4,356 children.

Children were detained for actual or alleged association with armed groups (2,491), including those designated as terrorist groups by the United Nations, or for national security reasons.

However, as UNICEF states about similar reports, these figures are “a fraction of the violations believed to have occurred, as access and security constraints, among others, and the shame, pain, and fear that child and family survivors suffer often hamper the reporting, documentation and verification of grave violations against children in situations of armed conflict.”

Save the Children reports that in 2022 approximately 468 million children (18.8%, or more than 1 out of 6) were living in a conflict zone and approximately 1.7 billion children (68%, or more than two out of three children) were living in a country affected by conflict.

A backgrounder published by the Council on Foreign Relations in 2005 reported that “approximately 300,000 children are believed to be combatants in some thirty conflicts worldwide. Nearly half a million additional children serve in armies not currently at war, such that 40 percent of the world’s armed organizations have children in their ranks.”

More Information

Wikipedia article Impact of war on children: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_war_on_children

UN Secretary-General’s Report on Children and Armed Conflict 13 June 2024: https://docs.un.org/en/S/2024/384

Save the Children press release 2023: https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/news/media-centre/press-releases/2023/new-figures-468-million-children-live-in-conflict-zones

Council on Foreign Relations Child Soldiers report 2005: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/child-soldiers-around-world