Protecting Children from Biological Weapons in Armed Conflict
UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, December 2025
A new UNICEF working paper warns that advances in synthetic biology, genomics, automation, and artificial intelligence are creating new pathways for developing and weaponizing biological agents in armed conflict, with children facing disproportionate risk.
The report examines how emerging biotechnologies may be weaponized in future conflicts, their intersection with cyber and information operations, and why children may be deliberately targeted for strategic or psychological effect. It identifies critical gaps in global biosecurity including attribution challenges, weak verification mechanisms, and insufficient child-centered preparedness frameworks.
Children's physiology, dependency, and limited access to life-saving services place them at exceptional risk in biological incidents, dangers multiplied in conflict settings where health systems are degraded and humanitarian access constrained.
The paper warns that existing biosecurity and disarmament architectures are not configured to protect children from evolving biological weapons risks. It calls for integrating child-specific risks into biosecurity assessments and early-warning systems, strengthening governance under the Biological Weapons Convention, and building rapid-response capacities prioritizing children's health and protection.
"This working paper delivers a clear message to the international community: existing biosecurity and disarmament architectures — national, regional, and multilateral — are not yet configured to protect children from the evolving risks of biological weapons."
"Protecting children from biological weapons is not a technical aspiration: it is a moral and legal imperative. The international community must act now to ensure that no child becomes a casualty of tomorrow's biological conflicts."
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