With 473 Million Children Living in or Fleeing Conflict Zones, Speakers in Security Council Advocate Digital Education to Ensure Learning
Digital education, when designed with robust safeguards, can ensure children can access learning even when conflict shuts down schools, the Security Council heard today at its first March meeting under the United States presidency of that body.
Chaired by United States’ First Lady Melania Trump — the first time a Council meeting has been chaired by a presidential spouse — the meeting comes at a time when 473 million children — one in every five children — is living in or fleeing a conflict zone.
Council resolution 2601 (2021) is a crucial element in the normative framework aimed at ensuring children’s access to education during conflict. Among other provisions, it calls on Member States to “promote the adoption of remote learning solutions, including digital learning, literacy, and skills”, as well as to provide assistance for the continuation of education for refugee and displaced children.
Briefing the Council was Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, who noted that the last two days prove that children are among the most affected by conflict. Schools in Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman have closed and moved to remote learning. Noting reports from Iran about the death of possibly dozens of children allegedly as the result of a strike that hit an elementary school in the town of Minab, she added: “United States authorities have announced that they are looking into these reports.”
Schools as Safe Spaces
Around the world, she said, 234 million children in conflict situations currently need educational support, with 85 million completely out of school. In violent conflicts, schools can be one of the only safe spaces that protect children and provide essential services. And yet, in 2024 alone, the UN verified a total of 2,374 attacks on schools and hospitals — many more are unverified.
“Digital learning can offer access to education when schools are closed or inaccessible, or when students are fleeing violence,” she said, highlighting the Instant Network Schools programme, which allows refugees and teachers to access digital educational content and the Internet in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.
Online Threats against Children in Conflict: Exploitation, Trafficking, Recruitment by Armed Groups
At the same time, children in conflict face heightened online threats: exploitation, trafficking, radicalization, digital recruitment into armed groups, and cyberbullying. It is crucial to strengthen legal and policy frameworks and address funding for education in emergencies. “The most effective way to protect children from conflict is to prevent and end wars,” she added, as she paid tribute to the First Lady of the United States for “her work to give visibility to the issue of children in conflict”.
“The [United States] stands with all of the children throughout the world,” declared Melania Trump, First Lady of that country and Council President for March, speaking in her national capacity. “The value placed on education by a nation’s leaders shapes the core of their country’s belief system,” she added.
In a digitally connected age, technology can help meet basic human needs, she underscored. Roughly 6 billion people — about 70 per cent of the global population — now have mobile devices and Internet access. Artificial intelligence is expanding access to knowledge once confined to universities, enabling individuals everywhere to learn about other cultures and participate in the global economy of ideas. “Today, almost anyone anywhere can access a vast universe of data in the palm of their hand,” she said, appealing: “Let's connect everyone to knowledge through AI, including those in the most remote geographic regions of our world.”
Path from Ceasefire to Resilience ‘Runs through the Classroom’
Speakers from countries with experience of conflict shared valuable lessons from their history. “Across West Africa, post-conflict recovery has shown us that the path from ceasefire to resilience runs through the classroom,” said Liberia’s delegate, describing his country’s own 14-year civil war. “We learned a painful truth — when education collapses during conflict, the conflict itself does not end, it simply mutates.” Children were recruited before they could read, teachers were dispersed and an entire generation was told to wait for peace before being allowed to learn.
However, community radio delivered lessons across the country — even when in-person schooling was not safe — demonstrating the value of technology. Today, Africa is not waiting to be transformed by digital technology; it is shaping its own path by developing low-bandwidth platforms, solar-powered systems and community-driven learning models. “If we fail children in conflict today, we will debate their crises tomorrow,” he warned.
The representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo said that guaranteeing access to education and digital technology for children in armed conflict is “an essential reality” for his country. It has witnessed decades of repeated violence and, currently in South Kivu province, M23 and the Rwandan Defence Force are undermining the Government’s provision of free schooling by imposing fees while thousands of schools no longer function and hundreds are occupied by armed groups. Nevertheless, the Government adopted a strategy in 2025 to build a resilient, inclusive education system “capable of ensuring the continuity of learning before, during and after crises”, he reported.
Technology Not Substitute for Peace: Focus on Gaza, Ukraine
The representative of Bahrain said Iran’s aggression targeting his country has led to the closure of schools. UNICEF reports indicate that the number of children out of school or out of formal education has reached 30 million in the Middle East and North Africa alone. That is one in three children in that region. His country has provided educational services to those in the region affected by war, he said.
Pakistan’s delegate reminded the Council that “millions of children are growing up amid rubble and chaos rather than in classrooms and in calm”. Education is not merely a service; it is a stabilizing and securing force, he said, adding: “Technology is not a substitute for peace”.
“Nowhere is this more urgent than for the children of Gaza,” Somalia’s delegate said, adding that their resilience in the face of unimaginable loss and daily hardship is inspiring. More than 97 per cent of schools in the Strip have been damaged or destroyed, and 91.8 per cent of all education facilities will require either full reconstruction or major rehabilitation to become functional again.
France’s representative noted that Ukrainian children in school have their classes interrupted each day by air-raid sirens while, at home, they spend part of their evenings in cold, damp shelters. And, in other conflicts, social media spreads propaganda targeting minors to facilitate their recruitment by armed groups — in effect, to “exploit their vulnerability”.
Girls in Conflict Settings at Heightened Risk
Girls are more likely to be out of school than boys in conflict settings, the representative of the United Kingdom pointed out. As a result they face heightened risks — such as exploitation, child marriage, trafficking and sexual and gender-based violence. The private sector, Governments and civil society must ensure technology meets the particular needs of girls whose education has been interrupted by conflict.
As home to one of the world's largest child populations, China, that country’s delegates said, highly values the important role of new technologies such as artificial intelligence. Technologies such as remote teaching, online platforms, satellite networks and mobile terminals “can break through the spatial and temporal boundaries of traditional classrooms making knowledge literally available at fingertips”, he said. At the same time the application of technology must be human-centric and guided by the principle of AI for good, with full respect for national sovereignty and local cultural traditions.
Call for Comprehensive Safeguards, National Strategies
Even as delegates praised the educational potential of technology, they emphasized the need for safeguards. Colombia’s delegate warned that “the digital environment has become a new space of vulnerability for children and young people”, noting that armed groups and criminal networks are increasingly using digital platforms to recruit, manipulate and exploit minors. Without comprehensive safeguards throughout the technology lifecycle, biases may be amplified, privacy violated and new forms of manipulation may emerge. “Faced with these challenges, multilateralism remains an essential tool”, she said.
Greece’s delegate pointed out that the Council’s Children and Armed Conflict framework has a duty to stay attentive to the evolving dynamics, including the digital dimensions of recruitment, exploitation and incitement. She called for national strategies that harness technology to build bridges to safe education, dignity and hope for children in conflict settings.
The Russian Federation’s delegate said the Internet has become the place where materials are being disseminated depicting sexual violence against children and scenes of their sexual exploitation. “Combating these monstrous developments is something that is enshrined in a number of provisions of the UN Convention against Cybercrime” — the first universal treaty in this area, which was developed upon his country’s initiative.
The representative of Denmark called for safeguards against disinformation and content manipulation. She also observed that “children in the poorest places in the world — which count many conflict-affected contexts — are more likely to be excluded from access to the Internet”. She stressed the need for access to both digital devices and the Internet. Eliminating the digital divide will help broaden access to education.
Artificial Intelligence Should Supplement, Not Replace Teachers
Panama’s delegate warned that “technology must be a supplement to, but it cannot nor should it replace in-person education”. While artificial intelligence can support teachers, it can never replace them, he cautioned. Further, without equitable access, technology could deepen inequalities that already exist, he warned. The representative of Latvia also stressed that technology and AI should enhance children’s learning, not replace it. “Digital tools must support teachers, not sideline them,” she said.