Last year was the most devastating year for children in armed conflict in two decades, according to the new annual report from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The UN verified 41,370 grave violations against children in 2024, a 25 percent increase over 2023, the previous record high.
While non-state armed groups were responsible for approximately half of all the report’s recorded abuses in 2024, government forces were behind most attacks on schools and hospitals, killing and maiming of children, and denial of access to humanitarian aid. Other grave violations monitored by the UN include abduction, sexual violence, and the recruitment and use of children by armed forces or groups.
The highest number of abuses verified in 2024 took place in Israel/Palestine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Nigeria, and Haiti. The 8,554 violations documented in Israel/Palestine are more than double any other context, with nearly 85 percent committed by Israeli forces. The Israeli authorities have starved, killed, and maimed thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza and are responsible for ongoing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide.
Violations in Ukraine sharply decreased in 2023, but doubled last year. The large majority were by Russian forces, which were responsible for nearly 700 attacks on schools and hospitals, the highest of any country monitored.
Each year, the secretary-general lists the governments and non-state armed groups responsible for grave violations in an annex, known as the “list of shame.” Russian forces were added to the list in 2023, and Israeli forces were included for the first time in 2024. Abuses by both have since escalated, and neither state has engaged with the UN to negotiate and implement an action plan to end these violations, the only way – according to UN criteria – that parties can be removed from the list.
The secretary-general removed several parties from his list this year despite their continued violations. These included the Somali National Army, and the Houthis and Security Belt Forces in Yemen.
UN data captures only a fraction of actual violations against children. In Sudan, for example, warring parties have committed widespread atrocities against children, but many violations are never reported or verified due to parties’ deliberate restrictions on humanitarian access.
The horrific toll of armed conflict on children demands action. All UN member states should use their influence – whether diplomatically, by not arming abusive forces, and through investigation and prosecution of war crimes – to better protect children from war.