Mr. President,
Ukraine welcomes the Special Representatives of the Secretary General – on violence against children and for children and armed conflict – and thanks for their reports.
This year marks the 30thanniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ensuring protection of those rights remains high on our agenda.
In this regard we share the priorities set forth by the Special representative on violence against children.
Although in Ukraine children continue to suffer from the Russian aggression, the recent report on children and armed conflict, like the previous one, does not contain any reference to this daunting situation.
According to the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, at least 97 boys and 49 girls in the conflict zone have lost their lives since the beginning of the Russian aggression. The number of IDPs in Ukraine, forced to leave their homes in war affected regions, stands approximately at 1.5 million. According to the IOM, households with children made up 43% of all surveyed IDP households.
Ongoing fighting poses physical danger and risks to children living along the line of contact in Donbas to be wounded or killed by direct or nearby shelling, mines or UXO. 24 OHCHR periodic reports indicate that children are among the most affected by the armed conflict.
On top of that, children living in proximity of the line of contact keep suffering from symptoms consistent with the post-traumatic stress disorder. We therefore highly value the continued practical assistance by UNICEF in providing training for psychologists who work with children to address this problem.
We hope that the situation in Ukraine will be duly reflected in the next report.
I thank you.