The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, issued a new review documenting how 2024 is, by every measure, ‘one of the worst years for children’ worldwide on record and how their human rights are being violated in the most damaging and brutal of ways.
Having analysed the latest available data and prevailing global trends, UNICEF states that more children than ever are estimated to be either living in conflict zones or forcibly displaced due to conflict and violence, with a record number of children affected by conflict are having their rights violated. These violations, the Fund highlights, include being killed or injured, out of school, missing life-saving vaccines, and being critically malnourished.
UNICEF is calling for all parties to conflict, and for those with influence over them, to take decisive action to end the suffering of children, to ensure their rights are upheld, and to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law.
Decrying that this number is only expected to grow, UNICEF points out that conflict drives approximately 80 per cent of all humanitarian needs around the world, disrupting access to essentials, including safe water, food and healthcare. In addition, it documents that over 473 million children–more than one in six globally–now live in areas affected by conflict, with the world experiencing the highest number of conflicts since World War II.
“By almost every measure,” asserted UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, “2024 has been one of the worst years on record for children in conflict in UNICEF’s history–both in terms of the number of children affected and the level of impact on their lives.” Russell observed that a child growing up in a conflict zone is far more likely to be out of school, malnourished, or forced from their home–too often repeatedly–compared to a child living in places of peace. “This must not be the new normal,” she appealed, “We cannot allow a generation of children to become collateral damage to the world’s unchecked wars.”