Last week, I sponsored a debate in Westminster Hall on the impact of armed conflict on children. MPs from across the House spoke with one voice about the urgent need for the UK Government to strengthen protections for children in conflict.
It is an issue that many of my constituents in Hyndburn deeply care about, and it speaks to our wider responsibility on the world stage. Conflicts continue to increase and intensify around the world, grave violations against children have reached record levels, and perpetrators too often act with impunity.
Today, 1 in 5 children are growing up in conflict zones across the world. Between 2020 and 2024, nearly 50,000 children became casualties of war – the equivalent of 200 full passenger planes. And these figures are just the tip of the iceberg of the true scale of violations, limited to what can be recorded and verified in active conflict zones with restricted access.
In 1989, the world came together to adopt Convention on the Rights of Child, promising to uphold the rights of children at all times, even in war. Looking at what is happening to children today in Gaza and Sudan, Myanmar and Afghanistan, the world is failing to meet that promise.
The United Nations’ Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) Agenda is one of the most important tools the international community has to protect children living in conflict zones. Its latest findings make what has been documented abundantly clear: the very youngest victims of war are being caught in war’s merciless machinery. Children face grave harm including killings, maiming, recruitment, abductions, sexual violence, and attacks on schools and hospitals – at levels not previously seen.
Children are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of armed conflict and experience disproportionate levels of physical and mental harm, including from explosive weapons including mines. Children are seven times more likely to die from blast injuries than adults.
Unexploded ordnance will continue to threaten lives even after the ceasefire, and it also prevents access to humanitarian assistance. The Foreign Secretary has rightfully announced £4 million for the UN Mine Action Service in Gaza alongside £81 million in humanitarian early recovery support for Palestine but there remain huge challenges for the aid to reach those who need it as Israel continues to restrict border crossings.
Even amongst record high global violations, the level of harm being committed by Israel against Palestinian children stands out. For the second year running, the occupied Palestinian territory is the most dangerous place on earth to be a child, with grave violations committed at an extraordinary scale and pace by Israeli forces.
This Labour Government has repeatedly affirmed that human rights are universal, that the rights of the child are not suspended at borders or battle lines, and that international law must be upheld consistently and without double standards. The Convention on the Rights of the Child obliges us to protect children from all forms of violence, including during armed conflict. Yet, in Gaza, obligations are being flouted with impunity, which is emboldening Israel and is driving further violations.
We are witnessing the destruction of spaces dedicated to children’s education, development, and play. With schools, hospitals and residential neighbourhoods struck, children are not just incidental casualties, they are front and centre in the decimation of armed conflict. Their places of safety, education and play are being mercilessly destroyed. While the government has provided £30m of funding to UNWRA for health and education, we need to go further. As a member of Save the Children staff in Gaza has put it: “There are children playing hide and seek in the streets among the rubble, using collapsed concrete as slides because there are no playgrounds.”
Funding for de-mining and education on the risks of explosives in 12 countries including Ukraine, Palestine and Sudan is essential and since 2024, the Government have helped clear 26 million square metres of land, helping to make life safer for more than 94,000 children. The Foreign Secretary recently announced a further £20 million in new support for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and for women and girls facing violence. Further funding for humanitarian support should help more than 2.5 million people to access food, clean water, medicine and shelter.
But given the scale of the challenge, we cannot move fast enough. We must act – with urgency, with compassion, and with unwavering commitment to the protection of children everywhere. We need to uphold international law and promote peace for all children, no matter where they are.
The UK has both the unique opportunity and responsibility to continue to lead on protecting children in conflict. The UN’s Children and Armed Conflict mandate is one of the most powerful tools available to hold perpetrators of crimes against children accountable and uphold the laws and norms that exist to protect them. The UK can continue to play a vital role in standing up for them and hold those who disregard them to account.
We must protect the capacity and expertise on Children and Armed conflict that the UK currently holds. The Government must publish the UK’s first ever Children and Armed Conflict Strategy. Developing such a world-leading CAAC strategy will make a real and tangible difference for children and demonstrate the UK’s continued commitment to child rights.
