A/78/842-S/2024/384 United Nations General Assembly Security Council Distr.: General 3 June 2024 Original: English General Assembly Seventy-eighth session Agenda item 67 Promotion and protection of the rights of children Security Council Seventy-ninth year Children and armed conflict Report of the Secretary-General I. Introduction 1. The present report, prepared following consultations and covering the period from January to December 2023, is submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 2427 (2018). The report includes trends regarding the impact of armed conflict on children and information on violations committed, as requested by the Council in its resolution 1612 (2005) and subsequent resolutions. 1 Where possible, violations are attributed to parties to conflict and the annexes to the present report include a list of parties engaging in violations against children, namely the recruitment and use of children, the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of se xual violence perpetrated against children, attacks on schools, hospitals and protected persons in relation to schools and/or hospitals, 2 and the abduction of children. 2. The information contained in the present report was vetted for accuracy by the United Nations. Where information is not verified, it is qualified as such. Where incidents were committed earlier but verified only in 2023, that information is qualified as relating to an incident that was verified at a later date. The information does not represent the full scale of violations against children, but provides United Nations-verified trends in grave violations against children, given that access for monitors remains a challenge to affected areas and for victims to specialized service provision. The report highlights engagement with parties responsible for violations that has resulted in behavioural change. Attacks or threats of attacks against __________________ 1 2 24-06292 (E) See also the relevant reports of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in specific country situations, in particular in Afghanistan (S/2023/893), South Sudan (S/2023/99) and the Syrian Arab Republic (S/2023/805) and the report of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict to the Human Rights Council on children and armed conflict (A/HRC/55/57). For the purposes of the present report, the phrase “protected persons in relation to schools and/or hospitals”, used in Security Council resolutions 1998 (2011), 2143 (2014) and 2427 (2018), as well as in the statements by the President of the Security Council of 17 June 2013 (S/PRST/2013/8) and 31 October 2017 (S/PRST/2017/21), refers to teachers, doctors, other educational personnel, students and patients. 120624 *2406292*