The year 2024 marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which includes its Optional Protocol to prohibit the recruitment and use as soldiers of all children under eighteen years of age. What should have been a year of celebration in advancing fundamental rights of children, including during situations of armed conflict, has instead brutally demonstrated that children continue to bear the brunt of humanity’s inability to seek peaceful resolution of manmade disputes.

Instead of stopping the practice, armed groups have increased recruitment and use of children for armed conflict purposes as attested in Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Lake Chad basin, Mozambique, the Sahel, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Haiti. Most of the impacted children were abducted and forcibly recruited. Majority of these children are girls, who have also suffered rape and sexual violence, and have been bought, sold and trafficked as if they were disposable commodities.

Armed forces are not lagging far behind. The increase in the use of military force by governments and regimes has wreaked havoc on children. Killing and maiming of children and attacks on schools and hospitals are gearing to become – the two most prevalent violations against children in situations of armed conflict in 2024.  Air strikes, rockets, missiles, and targeted attacks with the widespread use of explosive weapons in heavily populated areas, continued to wreak havoc in situations such as Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Gaza, the Sudan, Lebanon, Myanmar and Ukraine. The constant use of anti-personnel landmines, the disregard for the dangers posed by explosive ordnances have reached epic proportions, contaminating cities, towns and rural areas to such an extent that they alone are responsible for at least 30 percent of all children killed and maimed in conflict zones.

Children’s age definition has been manipulated, thus breaking the letter and the spirit of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This has led to increased forced marriages, the prohibition of girls to receive an education and the recruitment of boys into armed forces as seen, for example, in Afghanistan. Millions of children are being denied an education, for lack of provision of safe spaces where boys and girls can be shielded from wars and allowed to learn the skills needed to face their future and that of our humanity.

Instead of protecting children from the strife of conflict, in 2024, children have become the image of war. Perhaps there is no more tragic image than the faces of children who are being denied humanitarian access to lifesaving assistance, particularly in Gaza and in the Sudan.

“The cries of these children echo across conflict zones, but far too often, the world remains silent,” said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba. “Their pain is a stain on our collective conscience. We must do better—because every moment we delay, another child becomes just another number in the long list of conflict related casualties and violations in the children and armed conflict reports.”

The granting of safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to children, and responsible implementation of International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights Law, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the elimination of wide impact explosives in populated areas, the prohibition of the military use of schools and the need to prohibit and eliminate anti-personnel landmines, are important commitments that can help children survive armed conflict when adults are not willing to commit to lasting peace.”

“As we move into 2025, let us choose compassion over indifference and peace over war. Together, we can rewrite the stories of these children—not with fear and loss, but with healing and hope. Let us hear our own children: their requests are simple, they want peace, an education and the opportunity to heal, to grow and to hope. Let us make sure that we grant those wishes in 2025. Let us prove to them, that their wishes matter, that they matter.”, she concluded.

 

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For more information, please contact:

Ariane Lignier, Communications Officer, Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict: ariane.lignier@un.org