The United Nations secretary-general’s annual report recorded 38,558 grave violations against children in armed conflict in 2025, as the Security Council marked 30 years of work on the issue at an Oct. 26 briefing.
The report said the cases affected 24,174 children and that violations in 2025 reached an unprecedented level. Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory had 12,445 verified violations, the highest listed total. The Democratic Republic of the Congo followed with 4,114, then Nigeria with 2,560, Myanmar with 2,203 and Somalia with 2,195.
Children and armed conflict became part of the Security Council’s agenda in 1996. Nine years later, the Council established a system to monitor six categories of grave violations, including child recruitment and attacks on schools and hospitals.
A separate resolution adopted Oct. 19 addressed abuses involving digital technology and encouraged digital literacy among children, as described in the Council’s resolution on digital risks to children in conflict.