Governments Blamed In Record Child War Crimes

United Nations building with multiple international flags in front

A new United Nations report says children are suffering record abuse in war zones, and this time it is governments – not just terrorists and militias – leading some of the worst violations.

Story Snapshot

United Nations verification shows over 41,000 grave violations against children in 2024, the highest ever recorded.
For key categories like killing, maiming, and blocking aid, government forces are now the main perpetrators worldwide.
Conflicts involving Israel and the Palestinian territories top the list, with state forces blamed for most abuses there.
Non‑state armed groups still commit roughly half of all recorded abuses, raising questions about how the United Nations frames blame.

Record child abuses in war as United Nations shifts blame toward state forces

The latest annual report on children and armed conflict from the United Nations Secretary‑General paints a grim picture. In 2024, the United Nations verified 41,370 grave violations against children, a jump of about 25 percent over the previous year and the highest level since this monitoring began nearly three decades ago.^[15] These violations include killing and maiming, abduction, sexual violence, recruitment as child soldiers, attacks on schools and hospitals, and blocking life‑saving humanitarian aid.^[12]

The United Nations summary shows that 11,967 children were killed or maimed in 2024, making this the single largest category of harm.^[18] The report also counted 7,906 incidents where armed actors blocked or attacked humanitarian aid and 7,402 cases where children were recruited and used in conflict.^[18] United Nations officials stress that these figures are not guesses. Each case must be checked and verified through multiple sources before it is added to the total, which means the real numbers on the ground are likely even higher.^[2]

Government forces take the lead in several of the worst violations

The United Nations summary for 2024 states that while non‑state armed groups were responsible for almost half of all grave violations, government forces were the main perpetrators of three of the most serious categories: killing and maiming children, attacking schools and hospitals, and denying humanitarian access.^[18] This pattern is not entirely new. Earlier United Nations reports on 2022 and 2023 already showed government armed and security forces leading those same categories, even when armed groups committed more total violations overall.^[5]^[14]

In the newest press coverage, some outlets go even further. One report citing United Nations data says that for the first time since this monitoring system began, government forces accounted for the majority of serious violations overall, with 38,558 incidents affecting 24,174 children, including sexual assault and forced recruitment.^[1] That article notes that government forces from eight countries, plus dozens of armed factions, now appear on the United Nations list of parties that violate children’s rights in conflict.^[1] It also highlights that state forces were reported as responsible for more than 6,000 child killings and nearly 8,000 injuries in the latest year covered.^[1]

Israel, Palestine, and other hot wars drive the numbers and the politics

The United Nations and major rights groups say a handful of conflicts account for much of the surge. In the 2024 reporting, the highest verified child‑rights violations were in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Nigeria, and Haiti.^[12] Human Rights Watch notes that in Israel and Palestine alone, 8,554 violations were recorded, more than double any other context, and it reports that nearly 85 percent of those incidents were attributed to Israeli forces.^[2]

Other theaters show similar patterns where powerful state militaries or security forces dominate the most lethal abuses. Human Rights Watch reports that in Ukraine, violations against children dropped in 2023 but then doubled in 2024, with the large majority attributed to Russian forces, including nearly 700 attacks on schools and hospitals, the highest count for any country monitored.^[2] These figures feed long‑running debates about how wars are fought, including air strikes in dense cities, use of explosive weapons in populated areas, and the willingness of governments to shield children and civilian sites during military operations.^[17]

Numbers, methods, and the risk of political spin

At the same time, the United Nations itself warns that these totals are a floor, not a full count. United Nations News stresses that the report only includes violations that could be independently verified and that the real number of abuses and affected children is certainly higher, especially in places where monitors cannot safely reach.^[15] This verification system is meant to keep the data solid, but it also leaves room for critics who argue that some conflicts are watched more closely than others.

The UN Secretary-General’s annual report on Children and Armed Conflict 2025 once again lists the Russian Armed Forces for grave violations against children in Ukraine.

This is yet another credible UN confirmation of Russia’s systematic crimes: killing and maiming children,…

— Andrii Sybiha 🇺🇦 (@andrii_sybiha) June 18, 2026

Human Rights Watch underscores that non‑state armed groups were still responsible for about half of all recorded abuses in 2024, even as state forces led several deadly categories.^[2] That means any simple headline saying “governments are the main perpetrators” can hide a complex picture. In some contexts, militias and terrorist groups recruit more children, carry out more abductions, or use sexual violence more often, while in others, regular armies and police units cause the most deaths and destroy schools and hospitals.^[18]^[20]