On Thursday, 11 December 2025, the Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS) hosted a public lecture entitled “From the Security Council to Action: Protecting Children in Conflict," delivered by Ms. Vanessa Frazier, the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Nour Allah Munawar, a researcher at the Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS).
The lecture drew upon Ambassador Frazier's unique diplomatic experience. In her previous role, she chaired the UN Security Council's Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, placing her at the forefront of the UN's primary mechanism for monitoring violations and advocating for accountability.
Her Excellency provided a rare insider's view into the engines and brakes of the international system. She explored the complex challenge of navigating geopolitical interests within the Security Council to advance the protection agenda, seeking to answer the critical question: How do we move from the powerful resolutions passed in the hallowed halls of international diplomacy to tangible change in the rubble of bombed-out cities and refugee camps?
During her lecture, Ms. Frazier also called on relevant parties to stop viewing children as mere “statistical margins" in armed conflicts. She pointed out that global headlines are often dominated by the grim calculus of war, which risks turning its most vulnerable and suffering victims—the children, whose childhood is stolen not by the natural order of things but by human failure to protect them—into collateral damage.
Referencing on the ongoing conflicts in Palestine, Sudan, and Ukraine, Ambassador Fraser's insights sparked an urgent discussion about the soul of the international community. She questioned whether existing international institutions still possess the will and capacity to guarantee the fundamental protection of the innocent, and what it takes to achieve effective multilateralism in an era of increasing polarization.
The lecture was attended by a number of researchers and students from the Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS) and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. It provided profound policy insights and personal reflections on one of the most pressing humanitarian issues of our contemporary world.