More than 70 grave violations against children caught up in war, being recorded daily: UNICEF

This is one of the key findings of a new report entitled, 25 years of children and armed conflict: Taking action to protect children in war, launched by the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF, on Tuesday.

Speaking at a news briefing at the UN in Geneva, Tasha Gill, UNICEF’s Senior Advisor on Child Protection in Emergencies, said that between 2005 and 2020, the Organization had verified over 250,000 grave violations in total, against children in the 30 locations.

“This is a staggering average of 71 grave violations against children daily”, she told reporters.

The report analyses 16 years of data on grave rights violations committed against children in conflict situations, to show the impact of armed conflict on children across the world.

Five hotspots

Ms. Gill emphasized that in the time frame examined, “82 per cent of all verified child casualties occurred in only five locations”: Afghanistan, Israel and the State of Palestine, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia.

The report examines how engagement with parties to conflict – state and non-State actors alike – enables ending and preventing child rights’ violations.

According to Ms. Gill, “our analysis shows that despite decades of advocacy with parties to conflict and those who influence them – as well as enhanced monitoring, reporting and documenting grave rights violations - children continue to bear the brunt of war.

‘Unspeakable horrors’

“Every day, girls and boys living in areas under conflict experience and endure unspeakable horrors that no one should experience”.

During the period from 2005 to 2020, UNICEF found that more than 104,000 children were verified as killed or maimed, more than 93,000 children verified as recruited and used by parties to conflict and at least 25,700 were verified as abducted by parties to conflict.

“To give just some sense of the magnitude of the problem: in one decade alone - from 2010 to 2020, there was an increase of 185% of verified grave child rights violations committed against children in conflict situations,” said UNICEF’s Senior Advisor on Child Protection in Emergencies.

She added that “it is also important to note that many children experience more than one violation, increasing their vulnerability. For example, abduction is often combined with or leads to other violations, like recruitment and use and sexual violence”.

The effort of UNICEF staff, other UN and partner organizations to collect and verify information on grave violations to better understand and respond to the needs of children, has yielded positive results.

170,000 freed

Since 2000, at least 170,000 children have been released from armed forces, many having survived multiple violations, including abduction or sexual violence.

“While we are complaining or criticizing all members of wars parties to conflict for not upholding their obligations under International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, we also believe that the international community at large can do more to protect children in conflict”, said Ms. Gill.