Open Briefing on “Children, Technology, and Education in Conflict”
On Monday afternoon (2 March), the Security Council will convene for an open briefing titled “Children, technology, and education in conflict” under the “Maintenance of international peace and security” agenda item. The US, which will assume the presidency of the Security Council for the month of March on Sunday (1 March), is organising the meeting as one of the signature events of its presidency. First Lady Melania Trump is expected to chair the meeting, at which Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo is scheduled to brief.
The US has circulated a concept note to Council members ahead of Monday’s briefing, which apparently reflects on how conflict can deprive children of safe and quality education, leaving them more vulnerable to exploitation, trafficking, and recruitment as child soldiers. It seems that the concept note argues that technology can connect children to crucial resources, including psychosocial support. The concept note apparently says that the meeting will address access to digital tools for children in conflict situations, while also discussing ways to reduce risks linked to emerging technologies. It seems that the meeting’s objectives include strengthening commitments to preserving access to education and technology for all children and exploring paths for cooperation with the private sector in this regard.
Monday’s meeting builds on Trump’s “Fostering the Future Together” initiative, which she launched in September 2025. The initiative aims to form a global coalition of nations which are “committed to enhancing the well-being of children through the promotion of education, innovation, and technology”. Among the initiative’s goals is to promote cooperation with the private sector to provide access to innovative education technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and blockchain.
The Security Council has previously addressed some of the themes suggested for Monday’s meeting as part of its children and armed conflict agenda and in its discussions on AI and emerging technologies. Through the children and armed conflict agenda, the Council has developed a normative framework aimed at protecting schools and facilitating the continuation of education in conflict settings. Attacks against schools and hospitals are one of the six grave violations included in the UN-led Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) for violations against children established by resolution 1612 in 2005. Resolution 1998, adopted in 2011, designated these attacks as a grave violation that could trigger the listing of parties in the annexes of the Secretary-General’s annual report on children and armed conflict. Resolution 2601 of 29 October 2021 on the protection of education emphasised the need to facilitate the continuation of education in situations of armed conflict. In this regard, it called 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.
Council members have discussed education in the context of armed conflict in both formal and informal meetings, including a September 2020 open debate on attacks against schools and an October 2020 Arria-formula meeting on the role of digital technology and connectivity in facilitating access to education in conflict situations. More recently, on 24 February, Panama convened an Arria-formula meeting that highlighted the role of education in preventing child recruitment and use and in ensuring sustainable reintegration of children formerly associated with armed forces and groups.
In recent years, the Security Council has also increasingly explored the potential that AI and other technologies have in promoting international peace and security, while also examining the risks posed by these tools. To date, the Council has held three formal meetings on AI. (For background, see our 23 September 2025 What’s in Blue story.) Council members have also hosted several Arria-formula meetings on AI-related issues. Among these, two meetings—one convened on 28 October 2021 and another on 19 December 2023—explored how to promote public-private partnerships to mitigate risks posed by AI, such as the spread of hate speech, misinformation, and disinformation.
Monday’s meeting will be the first formal Council meeting to address both how technology can help facilitate the continuation of education in conflict and how to mitigate potential risks for young people posed by these tools.
DiCarlo may set the scene for the discussion by describing the current scale of disruption of children’s education due to conflict. According to UNICEF, out of 234 million school-age children affected by conflict globally, 85 million children were completely out of school as at July 2025. UNICEF has described Sudan as “the world’s largest education emergency”, noting that 90 percent of schools have closed across the country due to the ongoing civil war, leaving an estimated 19 million children out of school. In Gaza, the Israel-Hamas war has led to the destruction of over 95 percent of educational facilities in the territory, leaving over 660,000 children (nearly all of Gaza’s school-aged population) out of schools and forcing 88,000 higher education students to put their studies on hold. UNICEF has also reported that 5.3 million children in Ukraine face barriers to education due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, and around 115,000 are entirely out of school. Over 420,000 Ukrainian children attend school fully online, while one million use a hybrid model.
DiCarlo and several Council members may emphasise the importance of ending and preventing the disruption to children’s education, including by implementing relevant Security Council resolutions that aim to prevent attacks on schools.
Speakers are also likely to stress that technology—including digital tools, remote learning platforms, and AI-supported systems—can serve as a lifeline by helping to facilitate access to education in contexts where it is unsafe for students to attend classrooms. There may be reference to initiatives by national and international actors as well as the private sector in this regard. For instance, UNICEF and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have jointly established the Global Digital Learning Gateway to help member states develop and strengthen public digital learning platforms.
There may also be discussion on country-specific initiatives aimed at facilitating the continuation of education, such as the provision of laptops to students and teachers in Ukraine. UNESCO has also launched the Gaza Virtual Campus, which helps Gazan universities to recreate a full academic environment within a shared digital platform, allowing students to continue coursework. In Afghanistan—where nearly 2.2 million girls and women are barred from attending secondary and higher education due to restrictive policies imposed by the Taliban—UNESCO has provided support for Afghan media outlets that develop and disseminate educational programs, including through radio broadcasts and an online academy accessible via WhatsApp. UNESCO has warned that “these alternative learning methods—which cannot replace classroom education—are themselves constantly threatened by the de facto authorities”.
Several speakers are likely to highlight the need to provide sustainable funding for technologies that can sustain access to education in conflict contexts. Some may also emphasise that these tools should be accessible to everyone, including girls, children with disabilities, and displaced children. Some Council members may also stress that, while digital learning can provide continuity of education in emergency settings, it cannot fully replace the crucial social experiences of a physical environment. As described by several speakers during the 24 February Arria-formula meeting on education, safe schools provide a sense of normality and a consistent space where children can receive food assistance and psychosocial support. In-person interaction with teachers is also vital, as they are often the first adults to recognise signs of trauma or vulnerability, making them an important source of protection for children.
There may also be emphasis on the need to foster public-private partnerships to ensure that technologies for education are accessible and safe. Some speakers may warn that the same digital tools that enable learning can also expose children to risks, such as exploitation, recruitment, abuse, and cyberbullying. An illustrative example can be found in Colombia, where the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has documented how armed groups have been using social media platforms to recruit and use children. OHCHR has engaged with tech companies such as Meta and TikTok to emphasise their duty to mitigate such harmful effects. Other initiatives to combat such issues include a 27 January regional workshop organised by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, in cooperation with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the League of Arab States (LAS), which focused on promoting digital safety in conflict zones in the Arab region.
Speakers may emphasise that tech companies must ensure that ethical standards, child-centred designs, and meaningful safeguards are embedded into technology partnerships from the outset. Some speakers may also stress that the responsibility to protect children ultimately lies with states, highlighting the need for governments to ensure that all business actors comply with the duty to respect children’s rights as well as to strengthen national frameworks for digital child protection.
