The United Nations (UN) reported that 2024 witnessed the highest number of grave violations against children in armed conflict in nearly 30 years and pointed out that the highest amount of grave violations was documented in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Nigeria, and Haiti.Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba stated in her briefing to an open debate of the UN Security Council that wars and armed conflicts inflict horrific levels of violence on children.’It is as if parties to war and conflict, and we, the international community, choose to settle our disputes through military means at an enormous cost for our children, rather than choosing to negotiate peace for the benefit of all children,’ she added.’We cannot continue to stand by and watch with no action what is happening to the children globally, and especially in Gaza. The scale of destruction and suffering borne by the children of Gaza defies and contravenes every human standard. There is no justification for depriving children of access to the means for their survival, including access to food, healthcare, and security,’ Gamba stressed.The UN official highlighted the importance of providing sustainable resources to mitigate these violations, noting the difficulties they faced in monitoring, verification, and reporting. ‘The reduction of child protection expertise will lead to the inability to verify violations and, more importantly, identify perpetrators of such violations,’ she added.
