ONE IN FIVE CHILDREN IN THE WORLD TODAY LIVES IN AN AREA OF ARMED CONFLICT
More than 520 million children and adolescents are exposed to violence on a daily basis, a figure that reached its all-time peak in 2024. It is not only the number of conflicts recorded - the highest since the end of World War II - that is growing, but also their brutality. Serious violations against children increased by 30% in just one year to over 40,000 confirmed cases. More than half are concentrated in four contexts marked by prolonged wars and chronic instability: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Somalia.
Behind these figures are broken childhoods and lives suspended among fear, mourning and deprivation. Since 2010, the number of children living in war zones has increased by 60%, while documented violations have increased by 373%. Every day, on average, almost 80 children are killed, mutilated, abducted, sexually assaulted, forcibly recruited or attacked in schools and hospitals. Then there is also the denial of access to humanitarian aid, which deprives entire communities of care, food and education, turning survival into a daily challenge.
Since 2005, over 400,000 serious violations have been documented in 33 countries. Almost 160,000 children have been killed or maimed and more than 100,000 recruited or used by groups and armed forces. These figures reveal how war systematically targets those who, by definition, should instead be protected. Yet, despite the evidence, the global approach to security continues to make other choices: less than 2% of the world's expenditure goes towards peacebuilding and peacekeeping, while defence budgets reach record levels.
In 2024, over 11% of the earth's surface was within 50 kilometres of a conflict and recorded armed clashes rose to almost 27,000. This data come from Save the Children, and the same organisation emphasises that true security is not measured in weapons or borders, but in the possibility for every child to live without fear, go to school and grow up protected.
In this context, respect for international humanitarian law is not optional—it is essential. On the contrary, the rules protecting civilians, and in particular minors, in armed conflicts are systematically violated without consequences. Ensuring safe humanitarian access, protecting schools and hospitals, preventing recruitment and ensuring justice for the violations committed are clear responsibilities of the States involved and the parties to the conflict. In many cases, however, the law exists only on paper.
What is needed is an urgent change of course, more investment in conflict prevention, peace and child protection, national strategies based on education for dialogue, and effective justice mechanisms at international and national levels. Most importantly, we need to listen to the voices of children and young people. To ignore them is to accept that war continues to steal not only the present, but also the tomorrow of entire generations. In essence, the future of us all.
