Presenter says United Nations report finds governments now main perpetrators of grave violations against children

A presenter addressing the council said the United Nations' 2025 report on children in armed conflict shows government forces have become the principal perpetrators of grave violations against children.

“The report of the Secretary General presented to this Council today is not a wake-up call,” the Presenter said, adding that after decades of warnings and evidence "the international community cannot claim ignorance" of the harm children suffer in conflict. The Presenter argued that continued inaction reflects a political choice rather than ignorance.

The Presenter emphasized the scale and type of violations documented in the report. "For the first time, government forces are the main perpetrators of grave violations against children overall, and specifically the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access," the Presenter said, citing the report's findings for 2025.

The address framed the 2025 findings as a significant policy and legal concern. The Presenter said the shift from nonstate to state perpetrators "signals a dramatic disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law and an erosion of the principle that states bear the primary responsibility to protect their populations, including children." The Presenter urged the council, member states and the wider international community to treat the report as a moral and political imperative.

The provided transcript records the presenter's remarks and does not record a subsequent formal vote or motion in the included segments. The report itself and the Presenter’s statements anchor the concerns raised in this address.