The War on Children Is Escalating. Where Is Canada’s Leadership on Human Rights?*
By Danny Glenwright, President & CEO, Save the Children, and Alex Neve, Senior Fellow, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa; professor international human rights
Around the world, in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Haiti, and many other places, children are bearing the brunt of war. Bombs destroy homes. Armed groups close their schools. Violence and displacement replace daily routines and safety. Conflict kills children, violates their rights and robs them of their childhoods, in direct violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.
Save the Children’s annual Stop the War on Children report documents record levels of grave violations against children, including killings, maiming, recruitment, abductions, sexual violence, and denial of humanitarian access. Palestinian children, along with children in Nigeria, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, face some of the worst abuses. Children most affected by conflict, displacement, and systemic inequality continue to endure the gravest abuses while those responsible evade accountability.
Canada has helped shape so many of the applicable global human rights standards, from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention to the Vancouver Principles on preventing the use of child soldiers. But the companion report, Stop the War on Children – Canadian Spotlight, shows that Canada is falling short of its own commitments. Canada has backed away from fully championing the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, or complying with the Arms Trade Treaty, which regulates the international trade in conventional arms. Nor has Canada consistently placed children’s rights at the centre of its foreign aid, diplomacy, international cooperation, and accountability efforts. Recent cuts in foreign aid, combined with troubling, ongoing arms exports, including indirect transfers that risk contributing to war crimes and ongoing atrocities, further undermine Canada’s credibility on human rights.
Canada’s actions should match its values and legal obligations. Children should never pay the price of war, whether directly or indirectly. Yet when Canadian-made weapons or military assistance reach countries or groups that harm children, we risk contributing to the very violations we condemn. Canada must draw a clearer line: no weapons and no military support for those who harm children.
This means ending the sale or export of arms, and any form of military assistance, to countries or groups when there is a risk that children are being harmed. Protecting children must come first.
As global military spending rises, grave violations against children have surged. This reflects a human rights and humanitarian system under strain, in which political and economic interests too often outweigh legal obligations to protect civilians. Investment in peacekeeping and peacebuilding remains less than one percent of global security spending.
The human cost is staggering. Gaza now has the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history. In far too many countries, families facing impossible choices must decide which child will eat, whether a daughter should marry early, or whether school is worth the risk. Armed groups exploit this desperation, luring children with false promises of food and safety.
Thirteen-year-old Dieu Merci** from the Democratic Republic of the Congo remembers the night armed men surrounded his community during a prayer vigil. Hidden inside his home, he listened as they attacked his neighbours. Three of his brothers were inside a nearby church. One was killed, and two were taken. “We, the children, cannot defend ourselves alone,” he told us. “Those men mainly target children.”
His fear remains. “Sometimes I feel a little better, but at times I am overcome by fear. Many terrible things happen to children if they are not protected. I wish all children could be kept away from war.”
Canada now has both an opportunity and a responsibility to lead with a renewed human rights focus. Protecting children and upholding their rights must be central to Canadian foreign policy. That requires sustained investment in preventing grave violations, stronger accountability mechanisms, safe humanitarian access, full respect for international law, and a firm commitment that Canadian-made arms are never used to harm children.
At a moment when Canada’s global role is increasingly being defined through the language of “principled pragmatism,” there can be nothing more pragmatic — or more principled — than protecting children from the horrors of war. Every child denied safety, education, healthcare, or protection because of conflict represents a failure to uphold the international commitments Canada has long championed. Human rights leadership is not symbolic; it strengthens global stability, builds trust and partnerships, and reflects the values Canada claims to defend.
Dieu Merci’s plea is simple and urgent: “I wish all children could be kept away from war.” His voice is one Canada — and the international community — must listen to. At a time when universal human rights are under growing strain and conflicts are becoming more devastating for civilians, protecting children cannot become negotiable. Canada cannot end every war, but it can choose whether its policies reinforce impunity or uphold the rights and dignity of children caught in conflict. If Canada is serious about principled leadership in an increasingly unstable world, then protecting children from the violence of war must remain a clear and unwavering line.
*Originally published on the website of Save the Children Canada, on June 10, 2026.
**Names are changed
Photo credit: Save the Children. Shadi, 8, and his cousin Aya, 13, attend's Save the Children's learning space in Gaza.
