Impact of war and conflict on children

Approximate read time: 5 minutes

1. Save the Children report 

In 2023, Save the Children published its seventh report in its ‘Stop the war on children’ series.^[1] The report focused on conflict zones in 2022. It used data on the number of children living in these areas collated by the Peace Research Institute Oslo, Save the Children’s own analysis of the 2022 UN ‘Secretary-general annual report on children and armed conflict’, as well as the charity’s own mapping of the number of ‘grave violations’ in the UN’s reports on children and armed conflict from 2005 to 2022. The UN has defined six areas in which children come to harm in war, terming them the six grave violations. These are: 

• killing and maiming of children 

• recruitment of children as soldiers 

• sexual violence against children 

• abduction of children 

• attacks against schools or hospitals 

• denial of humanitarian access for children

Further information on these is available on the UN’s website.^[2]  

The charity reported that about 468 million children, or one in six, were living in a conflict zone in 2022.^[3] This number had grown “steadily” over time, with a 2.8% increase from 2021. Save the Children also found that 27,638 grave violations against children had been verified, the highest number since reporting started in 2005. This meant that 76 violations took place on average each day, an increase of 13% from 2021. However, the charity argued that due to underreporting, “this is likely to be only the tip of the iceberg”. It also noted that the trend of focusing on reporting of grave violations in the public sphere likely meant that violations experienced by girls were less visible and less reported. The impact of conflict on children with disabilities was also found likely to be underreported.   

Looking at individual categories of violation, the number of verified cases of children recruited and used by armed forces and groups was found to have increased by 20% from 2021, reaching 7,610 in 2022.^[4] On denial of humanitarian access, which can reduce children’s access to basic services and protection as well as hinder the reporting of grave violations, Save the Children found a rise in recent years. It said that three-quarters of all incidents verified since 2005 occurred in the last five years. In addition, the charity said children “continue to be most affected in the places they should be safe”; it reported that the number of recorded attacks on schools and hospitals increased by 74%, from 1,323 in 2021 to 2,308 in 2022.   

Geographically, Save the Children found that the Democratic Republic of Congo was the worst conflict-affected place to be a child in 2022, followed by Mali and then Myanmar.^[5] Other ‘top ten’ conflict affected countries included Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. Africa was the continent with the highest number of conflict-affected children, whereas the Middle East had the highest proportion of children living in conflict zones. Although the report focused on 2022, the authors highlighted the more recent developments in Gaza and Sudan and the impact these conflicts are having on children on all sides.   

Looking to address these issues, Save the Children called on the international community, states, armed groups and all other relevant stakeholders to urgently prioritise and increase their efforts to protect children in conflict.^[6] Arguing that states have the greatest influence and hold the primary responsibility for upholding children’s rights, Save the Children called on them to:  

• uphold the standards of conduct in conflict 

• hold perpetrators to account 

• support children’s resilience and recovery 

• protect humanitarian access and action 

• listen to children

2. UK government policy  

In answer to parliamentary questions, the previous government said the UK recognised that “protecting children from the effects of armed conflict is a moral, legal, and strategic imperative and essential in breaking the cycle of violence”.^[7] It highlighted that the UK is an active member of the UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), which “leads the international response to violations committed against children in conflict”.^[8]  

In its November 2023 white paper on international development, the previous government committed to developing a new strategy on children in conflict.^[9] This would be the first UK government strategy on this topic. Andrew Mitchell, then a minister of state at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said it marked a “step-change in our commitment to the protection of children affected by conflict”.^[10] In January 2024, he said officials had begun work on the strategy. The new Labour government committed to taking forward this work during the debate on the King’s Speech in the House of Lords on 17 July 2024.^[11]  

The then Conservative government made several commitments concerning children and conflict at a conference on the topic hosted by the Norwegian government in Oslo in 2023.^[12] It said it would host a “youth-briefer at the UN Security Council (UNSC) ‘children in armed conflict open debate’ in 2023” and “deliver annual ministerial level roundtables with children affected by armed conflict”. It also highlighted that during the UK presidency of the UNSC in July 2023, it had invited a 17-year-old child from Colombia to brief the UNSC, the first in-person child representative to do so.   

3. Read more  

• United National General Assembly Security Council, ‘Children and armed conflict: Report of the secretary-general’, 3 June 2024 

• Office of the Special Representative of the Security Council for Children and Armed Conflict, ‘Security Council Working Group’, accessed 9 August 2024 

• BBC Future, ‘Many children must live with the trauma of war. Here’s how to help them’, 21 February 2024 

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Cover image by Антон Дмитриев on Unsplash