In 2023, children living in situations of war and conflict experienced intolerable levels of violence, according to a new United Nations Secretary-General's report on children and armed conflict released this week. Children were recruited and used, including on the front lines, attacked in their homes, abducted on their way to school, their schools used for military purposes, their doctors targeted, and the horrific list goes on.
A total of 32,990 grave violations were verified against 22,557 children. Children were killed and maimed in unprecedented numbers in the devastating crises in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), particularly in the Gaza Strip, as well as in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Ukraine, among many other situations.
The annual report on children and armed conflict was sent to members of the UN Security Council on Tuesday and made public on Thursday. For the first time, it includes information on Haiti and Niger among the 25 situations and one regional monitoring arrangement on the Children and Armed Conflict agenda.
The report reveals the grim reality for children who have been recruited or used, killed or maimed, raped or subjected to sexual violence, or abducted. Their schools and hospitals have been damaged or destroyed, and access to humanitarian assistance for children has been repeatedly denied.
“The number of children enduring grave violations in 2023 as shown in the UN Secretary-General Annual Report on Children and Armed conflict is a wake-up call. We are failing children,” said Virginia Gamba, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, in a statement.
She called on the international community to recommit to the universal consensus on the protection of children from armed conflict and on States to fulfill their primary responsibility to protect their populations and to respect all norms and standards applicable to the conduct of armed conflict.
“The United Nations stands ready to assist parties to conflict in developing a joint action plan to end and prevent the use and abuse of children in situation of armed conflict,” Gamba said.
The new report notes that the evolving nature, complexity and intensification of armed conflict, as well as the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, have led to a shocking increase in grave violations against children in 2023. Cross-border conflicts and intercommunal violence continue to affect children, particularly in the Central Sahel and Lake Chad Basin regions.
This unprecedented level of suffering was manifested by an increase in most grave violations and continued high levels of other grave violations in 2023.
Children suffered blatant disregard for their rights and protections under international humanitarian and human rights law, including the right to life, with 11,649 children killed and maimed, an increase of 35 percent from last year's report and the highest number of violations verified in the report.
The number of children killed in 2023 (5,301) equates to nearly 15 children killed every day. This was followed by the recruitment and use of 8,655 children and the abduction of 4,356 children.
But these violations are just the tip of the iceberg, as tens of thousands of violations reported for 2023 are still being verified, and the total number of children affected - 22,557 - does not include the number of children caught up in incidents of attacks on schools and hospitals and denial of humanitarian access.
In addition, only 26 conflict situations around the world are monitored. The information in the report does not represent the full extent of violations against children, but provides UN-verified trends in grave violations against children.
According to the report, armed groups were responsible for about 50 percent of all violations, while government forces and unidentified perpetrators, such as landmines and improvised explosive devices, were responsible for the remainder.
Armed groups were primarily responsible for abductions, recruitment and use of children, and sexual violence against children, while government forces were the main perpetrators of killing and maiming, attacks on schools and hospitals and related personnel, and denial of humanitarian access to children.
The report finds an increase in the number of children who were victims of multiple grave violations, as evidenced by the high percentage of girls abducted for recruitment and use, and sexual violence, including rape and sexual slavery. In 2023, boys were more likely to be subjected to recruitment and use, killing and maiming, and abduction. Girls were disproportionately affected by conflict-related sexual violence.
The use of explosive weapons continued to have a devastating impact, killing and maiming children and impeding the delivery of humanitarian aid. 5,205 denials of humanitarian access were verified last year. Denials of humanitarian access increased by 32 percent in 2023 compared to 2022.
In addition, access to education and health services for thousands of children was compromised, with 1,650 verified attacks on schools, hospitals and related personnel.
The highest numbers of grave violations were verified in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (8,009), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (3,764), Myanmar (2,799), Somalia (2,283), Nigeria (1,995) and Sudan (1,721).
In the 2023 report, the UN notes that while it has verified more than 8,000 grave violations against Israeli and Palestinian children, the work is ongoing and slow due to the conflict. Of the 4,360 confirmed child victims, 113 were Israeli children and 4,247 were Palestinian children.
According to the report, most of the child casualties in Gaza from October 7 to the end of last year were caused by "the use of explosive weapons in populated areas by Israeli armed and security forces".
The annex to the report lists parties committing grave violations against children in situations of armed conflict. The list includes the worst state actors and non-state armed groups responsible for the most serious abuses against children.
In this year's report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres added the Israeli military and several Palestinian armed groups to the annual blacklist of perpetrators of grave violations against children.
"I am shocked by the unprecedented number of children killed and maimed by Israeli armed and security forces in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem," Guterres said in the report, which lists Israeli government forces alongside seven other state actors worldwide.
Other non-state and state actors on the list of shame include Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, Taliban forces, Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad (Boko Haram), Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Mouvement du 23 mars (M23), Myanmar armed forces, Russian armed forces, and Syrian government forces, among others.
In addition to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad was also included. Both groups are listed for the first time and are accused of killing, maiming, and abducting children. The report covers the period from January to December 2023 and only includes casualties reported or verified in 2023.
Due to severe access challenges, particularly in the Gaza Strip, the report does not represent the full extent of violations. There was a significant increase in the number of violations in 2023, with widespread violence by all parties to the conflict in the last quarter of the year. More than 23,000 grave violations against children were reported and remain to be verified.
Last year, Russian forces landed on the blacklist for their war in Ukraine. This year, they remained on the list despite a significant drop in the number of violations attributed to them. The United Nations verified the killing of 80 children and maiming of 339 others attributed to Russian forces and associated groups.
No party previously on the list has been delisted this year.
The situation in Sudan, which descended into brutal violence in April 2023 when two rival generals went to war in a power struggle that continues to this day, has seen both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) land on this year's blacklist.
The report found a dramatic increase in the military recruitment and use of children in Sudan, as well as their killing, maiming, and sexual abuse in 2023. Attacks on schools and hospitals were also reported.
"I urge all parties to take preventive and mitigating actions to avoid and minimize harm and better protect children, including to refrain from the use of explosive devices," Guterres said in the report.
But the report also offered a glimmer of hope for some children. Despite multiplying and escalating crises, more than 10,600 children formerly associated with armed forces or groups received protection or reintegration assistance in 2023.
The United Nations also made some progress in its engagement with parties to protect children in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen.
“I reiterate my call to all parties to conflict to engage with me and the United Nations on the ground, to identify and implement measures to protect children from grave violations. [...] No child should ever bear the brunt of an armed conflict,” the Special Representative stressed.
Further information
Full text: Children and armed conflict, Report of the UN Secretary-General (S/2024/384), published June 13, 2024
http://www.undocs.org/S/2024/384
Website: Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict
https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/