Amid rising child casualties, Ceasefire joins call for UN to publish a complete list of perpetrators in its 2025 Children and Armed Conflict report
Ahead of the publication of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights has signed a joint letter, published today, to urge Secretary-General António Guterres to publish a complete and evidence-based list of perpetrators of grave violations against children, including attacks on schools, as well as the deliberate withholding of humanitarian access essential to children’s survival.
While we recognise and commend the central role UN resolutions on CAAC have played thus far in enhancing the protection of children in war, promoting accountability and ensuring compliance with international humanitarian law, we now call on the UN to reaffirm the integrity and credibility of its listing process by reflecting verified data already collected through the UN Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM), without political interference or omission.
The urgency of credible and consistent action is underscored by the rising scale of violence against children in conflict. In 2023 alone, the United Nations verified 32,990 grave violations, with reports suggesting that this toll on children remained equally, if not more, severe in 2024.[i]
Recent incidents in Gaza and Ukraine provide stark examples of such violations. In Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, over 8,000 grave violations against children were verified in 2023 – a mere 3 months into the Israel-Hamas conflict – including killings, maimings, attacks on key civilian infrastructure essential to children’s survival, as well as reports of sexual violence by both state and non-state actors.[ii] This alarming rate of violations has shown no sign of abating, with UN experts warning of “scholasticide” in 2024 – a trend that continues into 2025, as illustrated by last week’s Israeli airstrike on the Fahmi Al-Jargawi School in Gaza City, which reportedly killed 35 civilians, including children.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russian forces and affiliates have been credibly implicated in the abduction and forcible transfer of children.[iii] Despite clear evidence, not all parties responsible for these and similar violations have been included in previous reports’ annexes. Children in Ukraine also continue to be killed or injured in indiscriminate attacks. According to Save the Children, April 2025 was the deadliest month for children in nearly three years.
The open letter reiterates that parties should only be removed from the annexes once they have been fully compliant with UN-mandated action plans and ceased the violations for at least a full reporting cycle. Failure to list all perpetrators not only undermines the work of those who undergo substantial risk to gather evidence in the field but also sends a dangerous signal that certain actors are above accountability.
The 21 signatories, including Ceasefire, underscore the need to strengthen the mechanisms for protecting children in armed conflict and ensure their rights are upheld. They also emphasise the importance of holding all perpetrators of grave violations to account, recognising the listing process as a key tool in breaking the cycle of impunity.
Photo: Akram Alrasny/Shutterstock
[i] UN General Assembly (UNGA) and UN Security Council (UNSC), “Children and armed conflict: Report of the Secretary-General,” (June 3, 2024) UN Doc A/78/842-S/2024/384, https://undocs.org/s/2024/384 (accessed May 27, 2025), para 4.
[ii] Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, “A Credible List: Recommendations for the Secretary-General’s 2025 Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict,” (April 2025), https://watchlist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025-credible-list-report-final.pdf (accessed May 27, 2025), pp. 11 – 14.
[iii] Ibid., pp. 20 – 21.
