UN envoy says 38,558 grave violations affected 24,174 children in 2025, calling for urgent action

Vanessa Frasier, the Secretary‑General’s Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict, told a UN press briefing that the United Nations verified 38,558 grave violations that affected 24,174 children in 2025, the highest toll since the mandate was created 30 years ago. "These horrors should shock the conscience of the international community," she said.

Frasier said the report covers six categories of grave violations—recruitment and use of children; killing and maiming; rape and other sexual violence; abductions; attacks on schools and hospitals; and denial of humanitarian access—and that the figures include verifications completed in 2025 even when incidents occurred in previous years. "Including late verifications gives us a more complete picture of the extent of suffering," she said.

The envoy warned that for the first time government forces were responsible for the majority of verified grave violations, including the principal share of killings and maimings, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access. She reported 14,224 children were verified killed or maimed, and that the number of children killed rose 35% from 2024 to 6,266.

Frasier named the country situations with the highest verified levels in 2025 as the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Myanmar and Somalia. She also highlighted an increase in the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and the systematic exploitation of children "including as fighters and for sexual purposes." "Sexual violence against children, especially girls, continues to be used as a tactic of war," she said.

On protection and recovery, Frasier said UNICEF and partners supported 13,112 children released from armed forces or groups in 2025 with family tracing, reunification and reintegration services, bringing the total number of children released since 2005 to more than 220,000. She cautioned that release is only the first step and that reintegration requires sustained, age‑appropriate, gender‑responsive, trauma‑informed and disability‑inclusive services.

Frasier repeated a call for predictable, flexible multi‑year funding for the monitoring and reporting mechanism and urged that child protection be integrated across peace operations and related processes. "Protecting children is not optional. I remind constantly it is a legal and moral obligation," she said. She paid tribute to child protection actors on the ground and urged member states to ensure their safety so they can deliver lifesaving assistance.

The briefing closed with an appeal to member states to translate the report’s data into action, including the completion and implementation of timebound action plans where parties express interest in engaging with the United Nations.