Africa: 30 Years of Protecting Children Affected By Armed Conflict - From Commitment to Impact

What the report says

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell addressed the United Nations Security Council in New York on the 30th anniversary of Graça Machel’s landmark report on children affected by armed conflict, according to AllAfrica’s publication of her prepared remarks. Russell said the report helped change how the world understood the impact of war on children and helped build the Children and Armed Conflict agenda now used by the UN and member states.

In her remarks, Russell pointed to progress made over three decades, including monitoring and reporting systems, more than 40 action plans with parties to conflict, and the release of more than 220,000 children from armed forces and armed groups. She also said the situation remains severe, citing UN-verified grave violations since 2005 and warning that children continue to be killed, maimed, recruited, abducted and denied aid in multiple conflict zones. She highlighted the need to protect schools, hospitals and humanitarian access, and said explosive weapons and new technologies such as AI-enabled targeting and armed drones are creating additional risks.

Russell used examples from Sudan and South Sudan to underline the human cost of conflict and the importance of support services for survivors. She said funding cuts have forced some UNICEF-supported safe spaces to close, even as demand for assistance remains high. Her remarks called on parties to conflict to stop violations, on states to use their influence, and on the UN system to strengthen the tools that monitor, document and respond to abuses against children.