Children: 23,000 Blocked Aid Incidents Risk Children's Futures

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Published Jun 22, 2024

Briefing by Ted Chaiban, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, on Children and Armed Conflict.

Ted Chaiban, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said, “The UN has verified almost 23,000 incidents of denial of humanitarian access, with nearly 15,000 verified over the past five years and 3,931 incidents in the last Secretary General’s report, a stubbornly high figure. Lack of access to humanitarian services creates greater vulnerability and increases other child rights violations. Children are the first to suffer and the ones who will carry the longest-lasting humanitarian consequences. Parties have a legal and moral responsibility to ensure children’s access to humanitarian services.”

He also called on Member States to strengthen carve-outs designed to protect humanitarian access.

He explained, “Humanitarian agencies need to be able to engage with all armed groups for the purposes of humanitarian access to affected populations without fear of consequences.”

He continued, “We call on you to use your influence to press States and non-state armed actors to prevent and end the denial of humanitarian access to children – protect humanitarian actors and allow humanitarian organizations to safely and timely reach those in most need, across front lines and across borders.”