A/HRC/28/54 I. Introduction 1. The present report covers the period from December 2013 to December 2014 and is submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 67/152, in which the Assembly requested the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict to submit a report to the Human Rights Council on the activities undertaken in fulfilment of her mandate, including information on progress achieved, challenges in the children and armed conflict agenda and her field visits. II. Progress and challenges in addressing grave violations against children in armed conflict 2. Unprecedented challenges for the protection of tens of millions of children growing up in countries affected by conflict materialized in 2014. In particular, children in six countries affected by major crises, namely, the Central African Republic, the State of Palestine, Iraq, Nigeria, South Sudan and the Syrian Arab Republic, were exposed to the most egregious violations. In most of those countries, conflict was characterized by extremist ideology, sectarian, ethnic or religious divisions that challenged the response capacity of national authorities and the international community. Those conflicts added to existing challenges from protracted conflicts, such as in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Yemen, where grave violations against children continued. 3. Among the events that shocked the world’s conscience were the abduction and/or killing by Boko Haram of hundreds of girls and boys from their schools in north-eastern Nigeria. The group’s brutal tactics, total disregard for basic human rights and targeted attacks against schools have had regional repercussions on the education of children. In Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other groups espousing extremist ideologies also used extreme violence that directly or indirectly targeted children. Moreover, some of ISIL propaganda materials broadcast through web and social media featured sexual exploitation of Yazidi girls, religious indoctrination of children and the use of child soldiers. Efforts to counter extremist groups have also posed serious issues for the safety and well-being of children, with State-allied militias engaging in uncontrolled or loosely-controlled mobilization, resulting in many boys, and sometimes girls, being used in support roles and even as combatants. 4. The recruitment and use of children became endemic in the conflicts in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. In both cases, ethnic and/or religious divisions, fuelled by power struggles, resulted in killing and maiming, sexual violence and other grave violations against thousands of children. The right to education and health, already weak in both countries, has been seriously compromised. 5. There remained no end in sight for the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic, and children continued to bear the brunt of the violence. In the State of Palestine, at least 539 children were reportedly killed during the Israeli military operations launched in Gaza between 8 July and 26 August 2014. Thousands more were injured and suffered life-long disabilities or lost family members, homes, schools and hospitals in the bombings. The situation in Libya and Yemen is equally alarming. 6. In all of those countries, children were killed, maimed, abducted, sexually abused, and recruited and used by armed forces or groups. Their schools and hospitals came under attack and they were too often denied access to vital humanitarian assistance. We have seen the highest number of displaced persons since the Second World War, including millions of 3