For a printable version of Watchlist’s December 2025 Children and Armed Conflict Monthly Update, click here.

In his 2025 annual report (S/2025/247) on children and armed conflict (CAAC), the Secretary-General (SG) newly listed the Clan del Golfo (also known as Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia), alongside the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP) dissident groups, all for the recruitment and use of children. According to UNICEF’s latest Humanitarian Situation Report on Colombia, in the first half of 2025, recruitment and use of children significantly increased with armed group recruiting 578 children, which is three times higher than the same period in 2024. The report indicated that 52 schools were attacked, militarized, or closed due to hostilities. In December, the SG is to report on the Verification Mission in Colombia, per SCR 2366. The Security Council should: 

• Demand that all armed groups immediately release all children under 18 from their ranks and prevent and end all child recruitment and use, the killing and maiming of children, their abductions, as well as take concrete steps to end rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, including in the context of recruitment and use;  
• Call on all armed groups to adopt action plans to end and prevent grave violations against children;  
• Call on all armed groups to immediately cease the use of explosive ordnance and encourage the government to scale up demining and explosive ordnance risk education; 
• Call on all parties to allow and facilitate the safe, timely, and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected populations, especially children; 
•  Encourage the Government to continue strengthening efforts to prevent the recruitment and use of children, as well as other grave violations, and to sustain and improve reintegration services, paying particular attention to the most vulnerable, including girls, indigenous children, and children of African descent, while noting the heightened risk of recruitment at informal border crossings. 

THE UNITED KINGDOM IS THE SECURITY COUNCIL PENHOLDER ON COLOMBIA. 

Seventeen non-State armed groups (NSAGs) and the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) are listed in the annexes of the SG’s 2025 annual report on CAAC for committing grave violations against children. The SG newly listed Mai-Mai Kashumba for recruitment and use and added this violation to the existing listings of CODECO and Mai-Mai Zaïre. The recent report (S/2025/590) from United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) indicated that between June 19 and August 31, MONUSCO verified 388 grave violations against 338 children (251 boys, 87 girls). Armed groups carried out abductions and recruitment and use, including the arbitrary arrest and forcible transfer of 1,454 individuals, among them children, to training camps by M23. Conflict-related sexual violence persisted, with 32 girls verified among the victims. Armed groups participating in provincial peace and ceasefire agreements and in DDR processes committed to releasing more than 400 children in Ituri. Despite these commitments, access restrictions, and continued abuses by M23 and other armed groups severely impeded monitoring and humanitarian access. In December, the SG will report on MONUSCO per SCR 2765 (2024). The Security Council should: 

• Strongly condemn all continuing violations and abuses committed against children in the DRC, express grave concern at the increase in verified grave violations against children, and demand that all parties uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law; 
• Call on all parties to immediately cease recruiting, using, killing and maiming and abducting children, release those within their ranks, and engage with the UN to develop and implement concrete commitments to end and prevent grave violations against children; including action plans where relevant; 
• Urge all parties to take immediate steps to end and prevent rape and other forms of sexual violence against children and ensure that survivors have access to timely, comprehensive, gender-sensitive, and age-appropriate response and protection, and call on the Government to accelerate efforts to implement its 2012 action plan to end and prevent rape and other forms of sexual violence and the Joint Communiqué signed with the UN to fight sexual violence in conflict; 
• Call on all parties to allow and facilitate the safe, timely, and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected populations, especially children; 
• Demand that all NSAGs immediately cease hostilities against peacekeepers, ensure their safety and security, guarantee their freedom of movement, and allow the full and unimpeded implementation of their mandates, including those related to human rights and the protection of civilians; 
• Reiterate the crucial role of Child Protection Advisers in MONUSCO and demand that the Mission continues to ensure the effectiveness of the MRM, and call for responsible transfer of child protection responsibilities to the UN Country Team, including those related to the MRM, in the context of MONUSCO transition, consistent with SCR 2764 (2024). 

FRANCE IS THE SECURITY COUNCIL PENHOLDER ON DRC.

The Working Group continues to negotiate conclusions in response to the following reports of the SG on children and armed conflict: Myanmar (S/2020/1243), Syria (S/2021/398), Afghanistan (S/2021/662), Somalia (S/2022/397). For targeted recommendations, see Watchlist’s Monthly CAAC updates from February 2021, June 2021, September 2021, and July 2022, respectively.

In November, the Secretary-General released his fifth report on the situation of children and armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic (S/2025/535), covering the period October 1, 2022, to December 31, 2024. During this time, the UN verified 3,343 grave violations against 3,209 children (2,653 boys, 428 girls, 128 sex unknown), including 17 children affected by multiple violations. The two most prevalent violations were recruitment and use (1,981) and killing and maiming (1,223). The UN also verified 97 attacks on schools and hospitals, 58 incidents of military use, 18 abductions, 4 cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence, and 20 incidents of denial of humanitarian access. Violations were attributed to at least 32 parties, with the then-Syrian government forces and pro-government forces and militias responsible for the highest number (917), followed by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (729), the opposition Syrian National Army (629), and the Syrian Democratic Forces (534). The SG noted that until December 8 2024, the UN had engaged with the former Syrian Government on strengthening the protection of children, including through the adoption of an action plan, which had not been materialized by the end of the reporting period. By the end of December 2024, the caretaker authorities announced their intention to dissolve all armed groups and bring them under the command of a unified Ministry of Defence. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG), Vanessa Frazier, expressed her concern on the high number of children deprived of liberty for their actual or alleged association with parties to conflict, including Da’esh, and that approximately 25,500 children with suspected family ties to Da’esh are held in Hawl and Rawj camps. The Working Group should: 

• Welcome the SDF and the opposition SNA for the efforts and progress in the implementation of their respective action plans, and call upon all parties who have not yet done so to engage with the UN to adopt an action plan to end and prevent grave violations; 
• Welcome the recommitment of the interim authorities to Syria’s international obligations for the protection of children, including acknowledging the definition of a child as anyone under the age of 18, its responsibilities under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict; 
• Call on the authorities to ensure children formerly associated with armed forces and armed groups are handed over to civilian child protection actors; 
• Call on all parties to ensure all children have access to gender-sensitive, age-appropriate, disability-inclusive comprehensive and non-discriminatory child protection services, including specialized services for child survivors of gender-based violence; 
• Urge Member States to facilitate the return of their nationals, including children of their nationals, held for their or their family members’ actual or alleged association with Da’esh , following individual, rights-based needs assessments, provide reintegration support in line with international law and standards, prioritizing the child’s best interests, and prevent children from becoming stateless; 
• Call for allocation of sufficient resources to the UN Country Team to strengthen capacities to deliver on its child protection mandate, including for monitoring and engagement with parties to end and prevent grave violations, and to address threats posed by landmines, ERW, and IEDs.