The release this week of the UN’s report on “Children and Armed Conflict” was followed almost immediately by the organization’s secretary-general predictably singling out the State of Israel. The annual report catalogs violations against children around the world, but in his remarks the UN’s chief, Antonio Guterres, said he was “shocked by the number of children killed and maimed by Israeli forces” and “the persistent lack of accountability for these violations.” 

The UN report focuses on verified violations against children in 2021, prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that, according to Ukrainian authorities, is responsible for the deaths of at least 243 children and injuries to 446 more. In a sign of the how the hallowed but largely powerless body is perpetually one step behind, Mr. Guterres said that violations against children in Ukraine as well as in Ethiopia and Mozambique will be included in next year’s report. 

The UN’s own human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, put the estimate of child deaths in Ukraine due to Russia’s actions even higher than some Ukrainian estimates, saying last week that as of July 3, 4,889 civilians had been killed in Ukraine, including 335 children. She added that the actual figures are likely higher. Yet Mr. Guterres focuses on Israel.

The report highlights almost 24,000 verified grave violations against children worldwide, an average of some 65 every day, according to UN source materials: “The killing and maiming of children was the most verified grave violation followed by the recruitment and use of children and the denial of humanitarian access.” It listed the places where the highest number of were affected as “Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.”

The Palestinian permanent observer to the UN, Riyad Mansour, was pleased with the report and said that, in accordance with the mandate given to the secretary-general by the UN Security Council in this regard, Israel should be added to a so-called list of shame due to its alleged violations against children.

Israel does not appear in the blacklist in this year’s report nor has it in the past, but if Mr. Guterres has his way that could soon change. “Should the situation repeat itself in 2022, without meaningful improvement, Israel should be listed,” he wrote in the report. 

Last month, UNICEF said that at least two children are being killed in the war in Ukraine every day. Even though the UN-funded group confirms this, the secretary-general has said nothing about the possibility of blacklisting Moscow, either now or in the future. By the UN’s own estimates, 5.2 million children in Ukraine need humanitarian assistance right now.