UN: Grave violations against children to increase by 25 percent in 2024

According to the United Nations, last year there were 25 percent more grave violations against children than in 2023, which was also a record year. This was reported at a meeting of the UN Security Council on children and armed conflict by Shima Sen Gupta, UNICEF Director for Child Protection, the UN press service reported.

“I want to start with a simple, painful truth,” she said. “The world has failed to protect children from the horrors of war. Thousands of children have been killed and maimed, thousands more recruited, kidnapped, raped or denied humanitarian aid. Every violation of children’s rights, anywhere in the world, represents a moral failure. And each one leaves scars that may never fully heal.”

The UNICEF representative noted two alarming trends. First, the world is increasingly using explosive ordnance in populated areas. This is now the leading cause of child deaths in many conflicts – more than 70 percent of all killings and maimings.

“These weapons destroy homes, schools, hospitals and shelters – even as families hide inside, hoping to be spared,” continued Shima Gupta. “From the Democratic Republic of Congo to Gaza and Myanmar, from Sudan to Ukraine and Lebanon, children continue to be injured or killed not only by gunfire but also by bombings, shelling and explosive remnants of war.”

The second problem, she said, is the surge in sexual violence. In 2024, confirmed cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children increased by 35 percent.

“Such crimes devastate human lives,” said Shima Sen Gupta. “Survivors face not only physical and psychological trauma, but also stigma, rejection and sometimes further violence.”

In 2024, 11,967 children were killed or maimed, most often as a result of exploding ammunition, crossfire and landmines, according to statistics cited by Virginia Gamba, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.

“The examples are legion,” she said. “Nine Palestinian children, aged between one and 16, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City. In Bethlehem, a 12-year-old Israeli boy was shot dead by a Palestinian who opened fire on a bus near an Israeli settlement. Every child killed or injured in such attacks is a story of a life stolen, a dream interrupted, a future marred by senseless violence.”