Children’s Rights Face War, AI Risks and Funding Strain; UN Committee Opens Global Review

Committee Chair Sophie Kiladze described an alarming global picture in which more than 473 million children, representing over one in six children worldwide, are living in areas affected by conflict.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has opened its 101st session at a moment when conflict, poverty, discrimination, climate disruption and weakening international support are placing millions of children in danger. Meeting from 1 to 28 September 2026, the Committee will examine how Lesotho, Timor-Leste, Tanzania, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Slovenia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan are carrying out their responsibilities under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also advancing work on children's access to justice and their participation in decisions that directly shape their lives.

Conflict is exposing millions of children to grave harm

Committee Chair Sophie Kiladze described an alarming global picture in which more than 473 million children, representing over one in six children worldwide, are living in areas affected by conflict. The UN Secretary-General's latest report verified 38,558 grave violations during 2025, affecting 24,174 children and marking the highest annual figure recorded since United Nations monitoring began. Behind those numbers are children who have been killed, injured, recruited into armed groups, abducted, subjected to sexual violence, denied humanitarian assistance or deprived of schools and hospitals that should have protected their health and future.

Warfare is also being reshaped by artificial intelligence, which can speed up military targeting and allow autonomous weapons to make decisions at machine speed, creating serious questions about accountability when children are harmed. Kiladze warned that poorly controlled technologies could increase the speed, scale and hidden nature of suffering, while recognising that responsible innovation could also improve learning, healthcare and access to information. In January 2026, the Committee joined the International Telecommunication Union, UNICEF and other partners in launching the first international soft-law framework focused specifically on children's rights throughout the artificial intelligence life cycle, shaped with contributions from more than 60 organisations and children around the world.

UN funding problems are delaying protection and justice

Mahamane Cisse-Gouro, representing the UN Secretary-General, said the organisation's liquidity crisis had restricted the Committee to only two sessions during 2026. The cancellation of its May meeting delayed reviews of eight countries, individual complaints, inquiries and other protection work, showing how a financial crisis inside the United Nations can have direct consequences for children waiting for a remedy, stronger legislation or action against abuse. Kiladze stressed that children's rights cannot be allowed to depend on the organisation's cash flow because postponed meetings may leave serious violations unanswered for months.

The financial pressure has also made it harder for children and civil society organisations to participate meaningfully in the UN system, since cancelled or confirmed-at-the-last-minute meetings reduce the time available to prepare evidence, organise travel and submit testimony. Speakers called on governments to strengthen their financial support for the human rights system, particularly as reductions in foreign aid are threatening services and safeguards during a period of exceptional need. The Committee currently has 57 reports awaiting consideration, while 59 periodic reports are overdue, adding further strain to a system responsible for monitoring a Convention ratified by 196 States.

Children must be heard as rights holders

A major part of the session will focus on completing the Committee's draft general comment on children's right to access justice, developed through an extensive consultation that involved more than 5,500 children. Their participation reflects a central message from the opening meeting: children should not be treated only as recipients of protection, since they have their own views, legal rights and valuable insight into the policies, institutions and environments that affect them every day.

The UN Human Rights Office has also created a Youth4Rights initiative within the Global Alliance for Human Rights, giving children and young people a stronger role in shaping and carrying out global human rights activities. Planned discussions involving the Committee, UNICEF and the UN Human Rights Office will examine children's freedoms of expression, association, peaceful assembly, privacy and access to information, which are sometimes incorrectly seen as challenges to parental or government authority. A joint action plan will guide work over the next two years, supporting better country-level information and more consistent examination of these civil and political rights during State reviews.

The Committee's month-long session arrives when hard-won progress for children is being tested across many regions, making sustained funding, independent monitoring and genuine child participation essential. Its work offers governments an opportunity to confront gaps in protection and ensure that the promises contained in the Convention become part of children's everyday lives rather than commitments that exist mainly on paper.