Children & Armed Conflict: Record Violations in 2025 - Security Council Briefing | United Nations

“When States become the main violators of the rights of children, this signals a dramatic disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law, and an erosion of the principle that States bear the primary responsibility to protect their populations, including children,” a senior UN official said. Briefing the Security Council, Vanessa Frazier, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, said, “The United Nations Monitoring and Reporting mechanism verified 38,558 grave violations against children, affecting 24,174 children. The process of verification was undertaken in 2025, thus including violations that have taken place in previous years. This is the highest verified number of children affected by violations in any year since the establishment of the children and armed conflict mandate.” She noted that in 2025 the report showed a concerning shift. “For the first time, Government forces are the main perpetrators of grave violations against children overall, and specifically the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and hospitals and the denial of humanitarian access.” Frazier said, “That is not a marginal development. That is a profound and deeply troubling shift. When States become the main violators of the rights of children, this signals a dramatic disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law, and an erosion of the principle that States bears the primary responsibility to protect their populations, including children.” According to the report, “The highest levels of violations in 2025 were verified in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Myanmar, and Somalia.”