The Unprotected: The Impact of Humanitarian Crises on Children and their Protection in 2025 - 2026

The Unprotected: The Impact of Humanitarian Crises on Children and their Protection in 2025–2026 provides an overview of the escalating risks facing children amid conflict, displacement, climate-related disasters, and a rapidly changing humanitarian landscape. As humanitarian needs continue to rise while funding and services contract, the report highlights how millions of children are being left without the critical protection and support they need.

The report is available in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic.

Key findings include:

• More than 500 million children—around one in five worldwide—live in or close to armed conflict or armed violence.
• Nearly 50 million children are displaced due to conflict, violence, and natural disasters.
• Grave violations against children continue to surge, with 41,370 verified grave violations in 2024, a 25% increase from 2023.
• 91% of child protection practitioners surveyed reported reduced access to child protection services, while nearly 75% reported rising child protection violations.
• Critical services are being disrupted, including mental health and psychosocial support, cash assistance, programmes for children associated with armed forces and armed groups, and case management.

Drawing on the latest available evidence and examples from humanitarian contexts around the world, the report examines how these trends are affecting key areas of children’s protection, including dangers and injuries, maltreatment, family separation, recruitment and use by armed forces and armed groups, sexual and gender-based violence, mental health and psychosocial distress, and child labour.

The findings underscore the urgent need to reaffirm child protection as a central priority within humanitarian action and ensure children affected by crises can access the protection and services to which they are entitled.