Children under attack
Children are coming under attack in conflicts across the world. We cannot accept this deadly new normal.
By almost every measure, 2024 was one of the worst years on record for children living in conflict zones in UNICEF’s history. More than one in six children globally now live in areas affected by conflict, forced to face unthinkable violations.
Children do not start wars but they pay the highest price for them. They’re more likely than adults to be killed or maimed by explosive weapons. They lose the protection and care of family members and friends. They’re abducted from their homes, recruited by armed groups and sexually violated. Their schools and hospitals are destroyed, and many are denied life-saving aid, based simply on who they are or where they live.
From Haiti to Myanmar, to the State of Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine and beyond, we cannot allow a generation of children to become collateral damage to the world’s unchecked wars.
We refuse to accept this deadly new normal.
What we can all do to make change happen
Citizens everywhere can begin by refusing to avert our gaze from children’s suffering, or not staying silent when attacks on children occur, because it seems too distant or the politics too complex.
We must insist to national and international leaders that protecting children from conflicts they had no hand in creating is the cornerstone of our shared humanity.
We must demand leadership that takes decisive action to end and prevent attacks and violence against children trapped in war zones.
All warring parties where conflicts rage must act to fulfil their obligations to protect children – ending attacks that kill and injure children or destroy their schools, hospitals and other infrastructure and services they rely on, and ending abduction, sexual violence and recruitment of children in conflict.
All warring parties must unfailingly enable safe access to life-saving and protective services and supplies for children. This includes taking action to prevent and end attacks on humanitarian workers risking their lives to save and protect children.
Governments who have influence over warring parties must use that influence to insist children are protected according to the requirements of international law, reinforcing diplomatic efforts to prevent and end violations against children.
Governments and other entities who support warring parties must ensure any support provided is consistent with their national and international legal obligations to protect the lives and well-being of children in conflict.
International peace and security institutions, such as the United Nations Security Council and regional organizations, must reengage in collective action to consistently prioritize the safety and well-being of children trapped in armed conflicts, including proactive diplomatic efforts to end conflicts.
The international community must urgently increase investment in programmes to protect children impacted by conflict, alongside investments in efforts to monitor and report on violations against children and advocacy to prevent and end them once and for all.
Communities in conflict-affected areas must be supported to create protective environments for all children, taking into account vulnerabilities based on age, gender, disability and legal status.
We must all come together to protect children from the horrors of war, turn back this deadly ‘new normal’ of attacks against children, and preserve our shared humanity.
Children cannot wait. We must act now.
Protecting children in conflict: An agenda for change
Children need peace to thrive. It is critical that efforts to end today’s seemingly endless armed conflicts are redoubled. More than 75 years since the adoption of the four Geneva Conventions – the international legal bedrock to protect civilians in war – and more than 35 years since the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children can no longer wait for protection.
Grave violations against children in armed conflict
To better monitor, prevent and end attacks against children, the United Nations Security Council has identified and condemned six grave violations: the killing and maiming of children, their recruitment and use by armed forces or armed groups, attacks on schools and hospitals, rape and other sexual violence, abduction, and denial of humanitarian access.
