Violations against children in conflict reach ‘extreme levels’, UN says
Al JazeeraJUN 22 2024
UN: Record 473M Children Now Live in Conflict Zones
Above: A boy walks past the site of an Israeli strike on a broadcast truck in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Dec. 26, 2024. Image copyright: EYAD BABA/Contributor/AFP via Getty Images
The Facts
According to figures published by the UN on Saturday, the percentage of children living in conflict zones has almost doubled from 10% in the 1990s to nearly 19% today, affecting more than 473M children worldwide.
The UN verified 32,990 grave violations against 22,557 children in 2023, marking the highest figure since Security Council monitoring began nearly two decades ago.
The report finds that more than 52M children in conflict-affected countries are estimated to be out of school, with widespread destruction of educational infrastructure in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, and Syria.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
The dramatic increase in harm to children represents a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale, with children facing daily struggles for survival that deprive them of essential childhood experiences and opportunities for development and make them particularly vulnerable to disease outbreaks such as measles and polio. The world must come together and stop neglecting children, who are disproportionately bearing the brunt of wars.
Establishment-critical narrative
The international community's response to protecting children in conflict zones remains severely underfunded, while key global actors continue to channel their resources into the very conflicts that fuel this crisis, revealing not only neglect but active complicity. The limited aid that does exist is often rendered ineffective as warring parties intentionally deprive children living in conflict zones of the life-saving assistance. This alarming trend demands change.