In 1996, twenty-five years ago, Graça Machel presented her seminal report on the impact of armed conflict on children to the United Nations General Assembly. The report exposed what was until then the invisible impact of armed conflict on children’s lives, and painted a grim picture of the scale and scope of how children’s rights are violated in situations of armed conflict.

The current publication presents key steps that the international community has taken to translate Graça Machel’s call into action, with a specific focus on the Security Council-mandated Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) to document grave violations against children and to foster accountability by identifying perpetrators. Based on sixteen years of data from the Secretary General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict, this report illustrates the impact that armed conflicts have had on children, by presenting trends of grave violations across the world and over time.

The report examines how information on the documented patterns of grave violations is being used to respond to children’s needs and how engagement with parties to conflict – State and non-State actors alike2 – enables ending and preventing grave violations. The report also provides country-specific examples showing how direct engagement translated into the adoption of concrete measures, including national legislation and policies.

Finally, the report presents key recommendations aimed at intensifying the actions of the international and the humanitarian communities and strengthening the programmatic response to better target and address the needs and vulnerabilities of all children living in situations of armed conflict.