The head of the United Nations called on Haitian authorities Thursday to do more to protect children from recruitment by armed gangs and for the international community to step up efforts to respond to Haiti’s worsening humanitarian crisis, which he called “a life and death emergency.”

“Children are bearing the brunt of this crisis,” António Guterres told the Security Council, highlighting his annual report on Children in Armed Conflict, where Haiti’s 490% increase in “grave violations” of children between 2023 and 2025 place it among the world’s top five countries on a blacklist. “Children are being abducted and killed, recruited and used and subjected to horrific sexual violence, including gang rape. These are crimes that scare bodies, minds and futures.”

Guterres said that despite the danger, all parties must respect international humanitarian law.

“The people of Haiti are in a perfect storm of suffering. State authority is crumbling as gang violence engulfs Port-au-Prince and spread beyond paralyzing daily life,” he said. “Humanitarians remain on the ground, delivering food, water, medicine and shelter. In the first quarter of this year alone, they reached 1.3 million people. Yet Haiti remains shamefully overlooked and woefully underfunded. For 2025 we require $908 million to support 3.9 million people, but less than 10% of that has been received, making Haiti the least funded humanitarian appeal in the world.”

Guterres’ briefing on Haiti was organized by Panama, whose special representative, Ambassador Eloy Alfaro de Alba, called for “all security measures to include protection measures for children” and unhindered access for U.N. monitoring teams.

Alfaro de Alba appealed for all parties to abide by guidelines on safe schools and to avoid turning them into conflict zones. He also joined Guterres in his appeal for financing to provide humanitarian aid.

“These figures are not simple statistics. Behind every figure, there is a childhood that’s been cut off too early, empty desks in schools who are that are waiting for teachers to come back, and dreams that are not able to flourish,” he said. “The most vulnerable are bearing the brunt of this crisis.”

Alfaro de Alba told Council members that even though Haiti is going through “one of the most serious crises in all of our hemisphere,” the issue has not received the necessary attention on the Security Council’s agenda, particularly the tragic plight of children who account for half of 1.3 million people who have been internally displaced by gangs.

“Violence has cruelly struck the heart of the classrooms,” Alfaro de Alba said. Last year, 284 schools were destroyed in gang attacks and in January another 47 in the capital were added to the list. The alarming rise in violence has forced the closure of at least 959 schools.

“Schools, which used to be open sanctuaries, have become minefields,” Jean Jean Roosevelt, a Haitian musician and UNICEF’s goodwill ambassador, said. “Schools are being destroyed, and classrooms have been converted into shelters for displaced families. This reality is a silent condemnation of an entire generation. Today, more than 1.5 million children are being deprived of regular access to education. 3.3 million, that’s two out of every, three rely on humanitarian aid; 129,000 children are at risk of dying of hunger this year”

“Let us give them back their most fundamental right, their childhood,” he added. “Give them once again the opportunity to laugh, to run, to learn, to dream. Let us carry together their dignity, their hope and their future. Let us take action so that Haiti may once again have schools, hospitals and safe spaces. Let us take action so that children no longer have to live in fear, but live upheld by the promise of tomorrow.”

Catherine Russell, the executive director of UNICEF, said as the humanitarian crisis in Haiti worsens and spread beyond Port-au-Prince, “one of the defining features of this crisis is the rampant rights violations against children.”

While the U.N.’s verification of more than 2,000 violations against children last year marked a nearly 500% increase over the previous year, Russell said the increase has continued. In the first quarter of this year, there has been a 25% increase compared to the first quarter of 2024, she said.

“Most alarming is the almost 700% rise in cases of recruitment and use of children, alongside a 54% increase in killing and maiming. Keep in mind that these are just the cases we have been able to verify – we believe the true figures are much higher,” Russell told the Council.

In addition to gang recruitment, children are being forced into combat roles, directly participating in armed confrontations.

Despite the devastating situation, UNICEF and other humanitarian aid groups are being denied access to provide assistance. In 2023, the U.N. verified five instances where humanitarian access was denied. Last year, the number skyrocketed to 728 instances.

Just last month, six UNICEF staffers were taken hostage by armed groups, Russell told the Security Council, revealing for the first time the horrific ordeal that happened while workers were headed out of the capital to provide life-saving “Thankfully, they have since been released, but this incident reveals the dangers humanitarian colleagues on the ground are facing,” Russell said. “Humanitarian workers are not and must never be targets.”

UNICEF has been trying to work with the Haitian government on getting children recruited by gangs reintegrated back into society. Since last year, however, only 140 children have benefitted.

Russell announced that while UNICEF and the Haitian government recently launched a three-year program aimed at protecting children from recruitment, exploitation and violence, “far more must be done.” She asked the Council to “use all available leverage to protect children and to support concrete actions to prevent further violations.”

The appeal was met with support from a number of countries, including China and the Russian Federation. The United States, while reiterating its condemnation of the recruitment of children into armed gangs and the disproportionate impact of gang violence on them, took advantage of the gathering to announce plans to share a draft U.N. Security Council resolution to help address the growing violence by rebranding the U.N.-authorized Multinational Security Support mission into a more robust force that instead of benign dependent on the Haitian National Police will now complement it.

Negotiations on the new mandate are expected to start next month.

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