Addressing the United Nations Security Council on 26 October 2026, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell marked 30 years since Graça Machel's landmark report on the impact of armed conflict on children. She said the report established that children were not merely caught in crossfire but deliberately targeted, recruited and exploited, and it laid the foundation for today's Children and Armed Conflict agenda.

Russell cited more than 40 action plans signed with parties to conflict and more than 220,000 children released from armed forces and armed groups over three decades. But she described a paradox: despite a strong protection framework, the situation for children in conflict is increasingly dangerous. Since 2005, the UN has verified more than 430,000 grave violations against children, including more than 38,000 in 2025 alone, with the highest numbers that year verified in the State of Palestine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria. She also noted more than 44,000 verified incidents of denial of humanitarian access since 2005, including more than 8,000 in 2025.

Russell said government forces were responsible for the majority of verified grave violations in 2025, and that more than 70 per cent of verified child casualties that year were caused by explosive weapons. She raised concerns about artificial intelligence in weaponry and armed drones, welcoming resolution 2832 on digital technologies. She called on parties to conflict to end grave violations, urged support for monitoring mechanisms and action plans, and pressed for political solutions to wars, warning that children in today's conflicts cannot wait another thirty years.