UN Report Documents Record Child Violations in Conflict, Names Government Forces as Primary Perpetrators

A new United Nations report released this week reveals that nearly 25,000 children in conflict zones suffered a record number of violations last year, marking a significant shift in the pattern of abuses. For the first time in 30 years of UN monitoring, government forces—rather than armed groups—were identified as the main perpetrators of grave violations against children. The annual report by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres documents 38,558 violations affecting 24,174 children, approximately one-third of them girls, with many subjected to multiple abuses including killings, rape, recruitment for combat, abductions, and attacks on schools and hospitals.

The report includes a blacklist of violators comprising government forces from eight nations and 67 armed groups from 16 countries and territories. Israeli military and security forces top the 2025 list with 12,445 documented violations, followed by government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo with 4,114 violations, and Myanmar, Somalia, and armed groups in Nigeria each with over 2,000 violations. Government forces from Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Russian armed forces in Ukraine are also listed. The UN verified the killing of 2,668 Palestinian children by Israeli forces in Gaza and 55 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with an additional 4,588 Palestinian child deaths reported but still under verification. The report also documents 346 injured Israeli children.

Government forces were responsible for 6,266 child killings, a 34 percent increase from the previous year, as well as 7,958 injuries. UN special representative for children in armed conflict Vanessa Frazier attributed the rise in government force violations to impunity regarding international law violations and the shift of warfare from traditional battlefields to densely populated areas using new weapons such as drones and wide-area explosives. Children were affected while fleeing combat, searching for food and water, seeking medical care, and navigating areas contaminated by explosive remnants of war, often resulting in lifelong disabilities.

Secretary-General Guterres expressed being "appalled" and "gravely alarmed" by the magnitude of violations against children in Palestinian territories and Israel, and "deeply alarmed" at attacks by Israeli settlers with no accountability. He urged Israel to develop and sign a time-bound plan with the United Nations to end killings and injuries of children and attacks on schools and hospitals. The report also notes that 6,607 children were verified as recruited and used in armed conflict, with the highest numbers in Congo, Nigeria, Haiti, Somalia, and Colombia. Frazier emphasized that the scale and persistence of violations demands more than acknowledgment, urging the 193 UN member states to recognize that protecting children is an obligation rather than an aspiration, as today's decisions will shape the futures children may live to claim.