Press Release

The Children of the World Between Statistical Figures and the Reality of Suffering

(Translated)

A United Nations report on children and armed conflict indicated that the year 2025 witnessed the highest number of child victims in armed conflicts over the past thirty years, with 38,558 grave violations against children documented. The number of children affected by these violations reached 24,174, a large proportion of whom were girls. The violations included killing and maiming, sexual violence, recruitment and abduction, denial of humanitarian assistance, as well as attacks on schools and hospitals. According to the report, these violations were concentrated in Palestine, Somalia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Myanmar. These figures reflect the magnitude of the suffering endured by children in conflict zones and underscore the urgent need to strengthen their protection and ensure respect for their fundamental rights.

International statistics and reports continue to monitor the reality of children in areas of conflict and humanitarian crises, revealing shocking figures that represent only a small fraction of the true tragedy experienced by millions of children around the world. Millions suffer from hunger and malnutrition, millions more have been deprived of education, healthcare, security, and stability, while increasing numbers of children have fallen victim to wars and systematic genocides.

With every new report, the same questions arise: Who is responsible for these tragedies? And who benefits from their continuation?

International conventions have affirmed a range of fundamental rights for the child, foremost among them the right to life, survival, and development, as well as the right to education, healthcare, care, and protection from violence, exploitation, and discrimination. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, is among the most prominent international instruments affirming these rights. It also obliges the states that have ratified it to take the necessary measures to ensure the best interests of the child and to protect children in times of peace and war alike.

However, these documents have remained nothing more than ink on paper when confronted with the interests of the major powers. The tragic reality of children exposes a vast gap between legal texts and actual practice, as the rights enshrined in conventions and treaties are reduced to false and deceptive slogans that lack justice and accountability. While the resources of nations are drained, wars are ignited, sanctions imposed, and regimes of oppression and occupation supported, statistical and human rights reports continue to flow, documenting the consequences of these crimes without addressing their real causes. It is as though the world is expected to grow accustomed to watching victims and to be satisfied merely with counting them rather than saving them.

The real tragedy does not lie in the absence of laws and agreements, but rather in the dominance of a selective international system that applies laws to the weak while ignoring them whenever they conflict with the interests of the powerful.

Indeed, what the children of the world are experiencing today is not merely a temporary dysfunction in the international system; rather, it is a direct consequence of a global structure built upon political domination, economic exploitation, and the subjugation of peoples to the interests of the major powers. Since its inception, the global capitalist system has produced structures of colonialism, occupation, wars, and the plundering of wealth, while at the same time presenting itself as the protector of humanity and the guardian of human rights!!

Children are the most vulnerable group and the most severely affected by the wars and conflicts that continue to rage across different parts of the world. These are wars that do not arise independently of the policies of the major powers and colonial regimes, which contribute, directly or indirectly, to igniting and perpetuating conflicts, while benefiting from their continuation politically or economically.

Thus, while crimes are documented and victims counted, children remain under bombardment, hunger, siege, and displacement, in a scene that exposes the inability of the international system to provide the effective protection that it claims to uphold.

Every year, international institutions and organizations issue dozens of reports documenting the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe, while the real causes of these catastrophes continue without any fundamental solution.

Therefore, the numbers of victims reflect not only the failure of humanitarian institutions—which have, in many cases, become a moral cover that grants the international system a humanitarian appearance while concealing behind it a far harsher and more brutal reality—but also reveal the corruption of this international order and the bankruptcy of the political model that governs the world today: a model that places profit above human beings, power above justice, and interests above human dignity.

The children of the world do not need more statistics as much as they need an end to the causes that produce these statistics. They do not need more slogans, but genuine justice that puts an end to wars, exploitation, occupation, starvation, and marginalization.

In conclusion, we affirm that saving childhood cannot be achieved through this capitalist system that has contributed to creating its tragedy. Rather, it can only be achieved through the establishment of true justice that preserves human dignity and rights by virtue of humanity itself, before any other consideration. The way of life that Allah (swt) has chosen for humankind is alone capable of establishing a system founded upon justice, mercy, and the safeguarding of rights, far removed from the logic of domination and exploitation. Children are not merely numbers in international reports; they are an inseparable part of all humanity, and the well-being of their future is tied to changing this catastrophic human reality and establishing a just system that preserves the rights and dignity of everyone. It is the system of Islam that Allah has chosen for us so that we may enjoy tranquillity and attain happiness in this world and the Hereafter.

[الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا]

“This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion.” [Al-Ma'idah:3]

Women's Section

in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir