In a statement issued as the treaty expired at midnight GMT Thursday, he said the world was entering uncharted territory, with no remaining legally binding constraints on the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Russia – the two countries that together hold the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weapons.
“For the first time in more than half a century, we face a world without any binding limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals” of the two countries, he said.
The New START treaty – formally known as the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms – was signed in 2010 and entered into force the following year.
It capped each side’s deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550 and imposed limits on delivery systems such as intercontinental ballistic missiles and heavy bombers.
The agreement also included verification measures, including data exchanges, notifications and on-site inspections, designed to reduce mistrust and prevent miscalculation.
Tools for stability
Mr. Guterres said decades of nuclear arms control agreements – from the Cold War-era Strategic Arms Limitation Talks to New START – played a crucial role in preventing catastrophe and reducing global nuclear stockpiles.
“Throughout the Cold War and in its aftermath, nuclear arms control between these governments helped prevent catastrophe,” he said, adding that such frameworks “built stability” and “prevented devastating miscalculation.”
The Secretary-General warned that the collapse of this system of restraint comes at a particularly dangerous time, as geopolitical tensions rise and the risk of nuclear weapon use is “the highest in decades.”
Reimagine arms control
But he added that the watershed also provides an opportunity to reimagine arms control for a changing security environment, welcoming statements from both US and Russian presidents acknowledging the dangers of a renewed nuclear arms race.
“The world now looks to the Russian Federation and the United States to translate words into action,” Mr. Guterres said, urging both sides to return to negotiations “without delay” and to agree on a successor framework that restores verifiable limits, reduces risks and strengthens global security.
“From that day on, our home became a travel bag and our path became that of displacement … My childhood was filled with fear and anxiety and people I was deprived of,” she said, speaking via videoconference from Syria.
Seema Sen Gupta, director of child protection and migration at UNICEF, briefs the Security Council.
The report documented a 25 per cent increase in grave violations against children in 2024, the largest number ever recorded in its 20-year history.
“This year’s report from the Secretary-General once again confirms what too many children already know — that the world is failing to protect them from the horrors of war,” said Sheema Sen Gupta, director of child protection at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Each violation against children in every country around the globe represents a moral failure.”
The real scale of the harm
The report presented to the Security Council is published annually to document grave violations against children affected by war. It relies entirely on data compiled and verified by the UN, meaning that the real numbers are likely much higher than reported.
In 2024, the report documented a record 41,370 grave violations — including killing and maiming, rape, abduction and the targeting of infrastructure such as schools which supports children.
“Each child struck by these attacks carries a story, a stolen life, a dream interrupted, a future obscured by senseless violence and protracted conflict,” said Virginia Gamba, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, whose office produced the report.
Virginia Gamba, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, briefs the Security Council.
While many of these violations occurred during times of conflict — especially as urban warfare is on the rise — grave violations can persist even after a conflict ends.
They persist in the unexploded ordinances which still pepper the ground.
“Every unexploded shell left in a field, schoolyard, or alley is a death sentence waiting to be triggered,” said Ms. Sen Gupta.
They persist in the spaces which remain destroyed, impeding children from accessing healthcare and education.
And they persist in the trauma and injuries which never fully leave a child.
Scars that never heal
Children who survive the grave violations do not escape unscathed — if they suffered violence, the injuries will stay with them for a lifetime. And even if they were not injured, the trauma remains.
“The physical and psychological scars borne by survivors last a lifetime, affecting families, communities and the very fabric of societies,” said Ms. Gamba.
This is why UNICEF and its partners have worked to provide reintegration programmes and psychosocial support for children who are victims of grave violations.
Sila said that the trauma of her childhood is still with her, and has pushed her to become an advocate for children in conflicts.
“From that moment on, nothing has felt normal in my life. I’ve developed a phobia of any sound that resembles a plane, of the dark, and even of silence,” she said.
‘This cannot be the new normal’
Ms. Gamba called for “unwavering condemnation and urgent action” from the international community in order to reverse the worrying trends which the report details.
“We cannot afford to return to the dark ages where children were invisible and voiceless victims of armed conflict… Please do not allow them to slip back into the shadows of despair,” she said.
Current funding cuts to humanitarian aid are impeding the work of UN agencies and partners to document and respond to grave violations against children.
In light of this, Ms. Sen Gupta’s call for the Security Council was simple: “Fund this agenda.”
She said that the international community cannot allow this to become “a new normal,” and reminded the members of the Security Council that children are not and should never be “collateral damage.”
Despite the devastation which the report detailed, there were “glimmers of hope” according to Ms. Sen Gupta. For example, the Syrian National Army signed an action plan which will prevent the recruitment, killing and maiming of children.
Sila also spoke of hope — she hopes that hers is the last generation to suffer these grave violations.
“I am from a generation that survived. Physically,” she said. “Our bodies survived but our hearts are still living in fear. Please help us replace the word displacement with return, the word rubble with home, the word war with life.”
This number represents a 25 per cent increase from 2023, marking the third consecutive year that violations have increased. 22,495 violations were committed against children themselves while the remaining targeted infrastructure such as schools and humanitarian aid intended for and used by children.
“The cries of 22,495 innocent children who should be learning to read or play ball — but instead have been forced to learn how to survive gunfire and bombings — should keep all of us awake at night,” said the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba.
The report only details violations which could be independently verified by the United Nations, meaning the actual number of grave violations and children affected are likely much higher.
‘Children should not be a casualty of war’
The report attributed the increase to indiscriminate attacks — especially urban warfare — in addition to disregard for peace agreements and deepening humanitarian crises worldwide.
“Children living amidst hostilities are being stripped of their childhood … When we allow this to happen, we are not just failing to protect children – we are taking away their chance to grow up safe, to go to school, and to live a life with dignity and hope,” Ms. Gamba said.
In addition to the broader increase, the number of children subjected to multiple grave violations increased by 17 per cent.
The highest number of violations, 8,554, occurred in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories – more than double the number in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which followed.
Governments ‘blatantly’ ignore international law
The report noted that while non-State actors played an out-sized role in violations against individual children, government actors were the main forces responsible for killing and maiming children, attacking schools and hospitals, and denying humanitarian access.
“Instead of recognizing the special protection afforded to children, governments and armed groups around the world blatantly ignore international law that defines a child as anyone under 18,” Ms. Gamba said.
The report listed eight countries whose government forces violated international law and committed grave violations against children — the DRC, Israel, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Russia.
‘A wake-up call’
In 2024, 16,482 children formerly associated with armed forces or groups received protection or reintegration support, but numbers of violations against children still remain staggeringly high.
The Secretary-General called on all Member States to adhere to their obligations under international law by upholding the rights and special protections of children while also expanding services to treat children who are victims of conflict.
Ms. Gamba reiterated this call, saying that the increase in grave violations should be a “wake-up call” and reminding the international community that indifference to such violations will not bring peace.
“We face a choice that defines who we are: to care, or to turn away … We all share the duty to act—with urgency, with determination—to bring this suffering to an end. Not tomorrow. Not someday. Today,” she concluded.
