Every war is a war against children. But it must never be accepted as an inevitability by Save the Children International   Mar. 2026   “Children were already paying the highest price in wars worldwide, and the escalating conflict in the Middle East is only deepening the crisis, with hundreds killed, thousands displaced, and millions living in fear.   As the world marks Annual Day on the Rights of the Child this year, bombardment, displacement, and terror are inflicting new wounds on a generation of children across the Middle East and wider region, many of whom already carry the physical and mental scars of years of violence, insecurity, or deprivation. What our teams are seeing and hearing is devastating.   More than 200 children have been killed in the first week, according to official and media reports. Across the region, children are terrified - unable to sleep as sirens sound or blasts shake the walls around them.   In Iran, children were killed in their classrooms. In Israel, where children have also died, rocket and drone attacks have forced thousands of children back into bomb shelters.   In Lebanon, families are fleeing for the second or third time. In Gaza, closures at crossings bring fears of prolonged siege and deprivation, and in the West Bank, checkpoint closures have prevented children from going to school. This latest escalation compounds harm upon harm.   In every conflict - from Ukraine to the Democratic Republic of Congo - children bear the heaviest burden. Children are seven times more likely to die from blast injuries than adults. When hunger sets in and malnutrition strikes, their developing bodies succumb faster, and preventable childhood illnesses become fatal.   The harms do not end when the hostilities do. The wounds of war follow children through their lives.   The current conflict in the Middle East and wider region is unfolding against the backdrop of a fracturing of the laws, norms, and institutions designed to protect civilians and uphold the rights of the most vulnerable. Children are among the intended beneficiaries of that system. They are also its most visible victims when it fails.   There was a record number of grave violations against children in armed conflict documented by the United Nations in 2024, with violations including killing, maiming, abduction, sexual violence, recruitment into armed groups, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access to children. These are not abstract statistics, but rather a record of our collective failure.   We have the tools to protect children. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Geneva Conventions, and the Children and Armed Conflict mechanisms are enshrined in international law and exist precisely to prevent what we are now witnessing.   Yet many in positions of power are failing to uphold these laws, and the broader international community is failing to ensure compliance.   Leaders have spent the better part of a decade perfecting the art of deep concern - releasing statements that are masterpieces of diplomatic posturing but that fall short of consequence.   When the law becomes a set of suggestions rather than a collective responsibility, children pay the price.   Last year, Sila, 17, from Idlib, Syria, addressed the United Nations Security Council, the body charged with overseeing international peace and security. Sila shared her powerful experience of growing up amidst conflict in Syria for almost her entire childhood:   “I am from a generation that survived physically, but our hearts still live in fear. Help us replace the word ‘displacement’ with ‘return’, the word ‘rubble’ with ‘home’, and the word ‘war’ with ‘life’.”   Today, Sila and more than 100 million children like her across the Middle East are once again living under the terrifying shadow of an expanding war. Her plea should echo in every chamber of power.   Over a century ago, Save the Children’s founder, Eglantyne Jebb, declared that “every war is a war against children.” That truth is as irrefutable today as it was then. But it must not be accepted as an inevitability. It is a choice.   Leaders must prioritise diplomacy over escalation, uphold international law, and ensure that all States renew their commitment to global stability and the mechanisms designed to protect children in armed conflict before erosion becomes irreversible and children around the world pay the highest price.   We must reject a global system that has decided children’s lives are acceptable geopolitical collateral. The stakes could not be higher - and the time for posture alone has long passed.”   http://www.savethechildren.net/news/every-war-war-against-children-it-must-never-be-accepted-inevitability-statement-save-children http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/child-casualties-rise-amidst-deepening-middle-east-conflict
	UNICEF calls for urgent investment in life-saving services for children to meet urgent needs by Catherine Russell UNICEF Executive Director   Jan. 2026   UNICEF calls for urgent investment in life-saving services for children as global humanitarian needs reach new extremes.   Surging conflicts, rising hunger, global funding cuts, and collapsing basic services are driving humanitarian needs for children to extreme levels worldwide.   As UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children 2026 (HAC) appeal is launched today, US$7.66 billion is urgently required to provide life-saving assistance to 73 million children - including 37 million girls and over 9 million children with disabilities – across 133 countries and territories next year.   Across every region, children caught in emergencies are facing overlapping crises that are growing in scale and complexity.   Escalating conflicts are driving mass displacement and exposing children to grave violations at the highest levels ever recorded.   Attacks on schools and hospitals continue unabated, while verified cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children are rising sharply. In many crises, children and the aid workers attempting to reach them are being deliberately targeted.   “Around the world, children caught in conflict, disaster, displacement and economic turmoil continue to face extraordinary challenges,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Their lives are being shaped by forces far beyond their control: violence, the threat of famine, intensifying climate shocks, and the widespread collapse of essential services.”   The global humanitarian funding environment has deteriorated dramatically in 2025. Announced and anticipated funding cuts by donor governments are already limiting UNICEF’s ability to reach millions of children in dire need. Severe shortfalls in 2024 and 2025 are forcing UNICEF to make impossible choices.   Across UNICEF’s nutrition programming alone, a 72 per cent funding gap in 2025 forced cuts in 20 priority countries – reducing planned targets from more than 42 million to over 27 million women and children.   In education, a shortfall of US$745 million has left millions more children at risk of losing access to learning, protection and stability.   For child protection, rising violations coincide with shrinking resources, threatening programmes for survivors of sexual violence, children recruited or used by armed groups, and those requiring urgent health support.   “Severe funding shortfalls are placing UNICEF’s life-saving programs under immense strain,” said Russell. “Across our operations, frontline teams are being forced into impossible decisions: focusing limited supplies and services on children in some places over others, decreasing the frequency of services children receive, or scaling back interventions that children depend on to survive.”   At the same time, humanitarian access is being restricted at levels unseen in recent years. In many emergencies, UNICEF and partners cannot reach children trapped behind shifting frontlines, making sustained humanitarian diplomacy essential to secure access and to protect children from escalating violations.   UNICEF warns that more than 200 million children will require humanitarian assistance in 2026. Many live in protracted crises, leaving entire generations at risk of under-nutrition, denied education, exposed to disease outbreaks, and deprived of safety and stability.   “The current global funding crisis does not reflect a decline in humanitarian need, but rather a growing gap between the scale of suffering and the resources available,” said Russell.   “While UNICEF is working to adapt to this new reality, children are already paying the price of shrinking humanitarian budgets.”   UNICEF is urging national governments, public sector donors and private sector partners to increase their investment in children, prioritising flexible and multi-year funding; support locally led response and national systems; uphold humanitarian principles and the centrality of protection; and remove barriers that impede humanitarian access.   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-calls-urgent-investment-life-saving-services-children-global-humanitarian http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/remarks-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-launch-unicefs-humanitarian Visit the related web page
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