Do we accept governments killing children now?

Your Proximities deep dive

Hello everyone,

This week in Proximities, we highlighted the U.N.’s annual Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) report. There were two worrying statistics, one of them startling.

First, children living in war zones were subject to a record number of violations, including killings, rape, forced recruitment, abductions, attacks on schools, and the denial of humanitarian aid that could have helped them.

But, second, and this is the startling one: For the first time, the main perpetrators of horrors against children were governments, not armed groups.

It’s startling because governments are at least supposed to adhere to international law and treaties that protect children in times of conflict.

Increasingly, though, we are seeing a clear pattern of impunity as more and more children fall victim, often deliberately, to the men with the bombs and guns.

How have we arrived here? And what can be done, if anything?

A Q&A below.

Bests,

Barry.

PS: Episode 4 of The Proximities Podcast is up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

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Tell me more about the U.N. report

It’s a yearly piece of research that verifies incidents of violations against children and this is the 30th anniversary of its first publication so it’s depressing to see that, exactly three decades in, it has catalogued a record number of crimes.

Here are just three headline stats (and, remember, these are verified. There will of course be many thousands more that have not been recorded).

• 38,558 “grave violations” were committed against children in 2025.

• 24,174 children were directly affected and had their rights violated, with 3,176 subjected to multiple violations.

• A third of the victims were girls.

•  Killing (6,266) and maiming (7,958) were the most verified violations, with a 34 percent increase in killing compared to 2024.

Who was responsible?

As I said, for the first time, governments. The worst offender, by some way, was the Israel military and its security forces, responsible for 12,445 violations. Next came the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 4,114 violations. The governments of Myanmar and Somalia, and armed groups in Nigeria all had more than 2,000.

Government forces from Sudan, South Sudan, Syria and Russian forces inside Ukraine were also among the chief offenders.

Nations and armed groups with certain violations are added to a “blacklist” that, while it does not automatically trigger sanctions, brings pressure, gives leverage to activists and requires compliance and negotiation before delisting.

What has the reaction been?