On its official website, the UN regretted that decades of resolutions, conventions, and commitments have proven insufficient to ensure the safety of minors during wars, and it held governments accountable for the situation.

In 2025, 38,558 grave violations against 24,174 children were recorded—a record high since the establishment of the mandate on children in armed conflict in 1996, the organization noted.

For the first time since that year, government forces are responsible for the majority of the verified grave violations, stated Vanessa Frazier, Special Representative of UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

This marks a disturbing shift. While states are expected to ensure respect for international law, they now rank among the primary perpetrators of violations against children, alongside armed groups. Killings, mutilations, forced recruitment, sexual violence, abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the obstruction of humanitarian aid—none of the six categories monitored by the UN spare the youngest victims, she added.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), more than 70% of the deaths or mutilations of children in 2025 were caused by explosive weapons, with the highest number of attacks occurring in the Palestinian territories, the Congo, and Nigeria.

The international body warned that, today, conflicts are becoming more protracted, fighting is increasingly reaching urban areas, and the means of destruction are evolving faster than the mechanisms designed for protection. Furthermore, he noted that new technologies further exacerbate these risks, as drones, autonomous weapons systems, and artificial intelligence accelerate military operations while distancing human decision-makers from the actual use of force.

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