Виступ делегації України на засіданні Групи друзів щодо дітей у збройних конфліктах

Dear Chair, Special Representative Ms. Virginia Gamba, colleagues and friends,

At the outset, I would like to express my delegation gratitude for your support of Ukraine’s joining to the Group of Friends of Children and Armed Conflict. This is important step for my delegation from very practical reasons.

We are also grateful to Special Representative Ms. Virginia Gamba for her briefing.

Ukraine as a party to core international instruments related to the protection of rights of children supports all efforts to develop and secure social protection of children, to promote rights and wellbeing of children and to accelerate progress in the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against children, to protect rights of the children in conflict zones or during war or in the situations of occupation.

As you are well aware, since 2014 Ukraine has been a victim of an armed aggression of the Russian Federation. This war against my country has devastating and long-term consequences, especially for the most vulnerable – our children.

The full-scale Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this February affected 7 million children in Ukraine, at least 993 children were wounded, 347 of them died, 646 were injured.

All these consequences of a war and growing threats to children only strengthened our determination to make a meaningful contribution to global efforts to enhance protection of children affected by armed conflict.

We have prepared a brief information describing full pattern of grave violations against children committed by the russian invaders in Ukraine. We will ask Chair to share it within this group.

The report on CAAC published today, envisaged that all gross violations against children will be the subject of daily monitoring by the entire UN system throughout the territory of Ukraine, including the temporarily occupied territories, and will also be regularly reviewed by the UN Security Council. This is exactly my delegation had requested from 2014 at all occasions in the Council.

Ukraine is determined to have a constructive dialogue and cooperation with the Special Representative in order to stop and prevent violations against children affected by the armed conflict.

I am confident that with joint efforts we will be successful in promotion and implementation of the CAAC agenda in order to safeguard and protect rights of children affected by armed conflict around the world.

Thank you.