Ukraine: Briefing on the Situation of Children
Tomorrow morning (4 December), the Security Council will hold a briefing on Ukraine. The US, December’s Council president, is convening the meeting to discuss the effects of the war on children in Ukraine. Executive Director of UNICEF Catherine Russell is expected to brief. The meeting will also feature briefings from a representative of the Conflict Observatory team based at the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab—a programme supported by the US Department of State—and one other civil society representative. Ukraine is expected to participate in the meeting under rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure.
Russell is likely to describe the devastating conditions faced by Ukrainian children. An 18 November UNICEF press release marking 1,000 days since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 reported that at least 659 children had been killed and 1,747 children injured since the war’s outset. It added that, since July, escalating attacks against Ukraine have significantly increased civilian casualties and infrastructure damage, severely disrupting water, heating, and electricity services. According to the statement, approximately 1.7 million children in Ukraine are without safe water, while 3.4 million children lack access to centralised sanitation.
A 29 November statement by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reiterated UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk’s assertion that “multiple aspects of the military campaign to damage or destroy Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure, including objects essential for civilian survival – such as heating facilities during the winter months – raise serious concerns regarding Russian forces’ respect of cardinal principles of international humanitarian law of distinction, precaution and proportionality in the conduct of hostilities”. The statement called for an investigation into “these recurring, systematic attacks” and for those responsible to be held accountable.
At tomorrow’s meeting, Russell is expected to call on all parties to respect international humanitarian law (IHL) and emphasise the need to protect children from harm, including by avoiding the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and by preventing the further contamination of areas by landmines and other explosive ordnance. She is also likely to call for an end to attacks on civilian infrastructure on which children rely, such as health facilities, schools, social services, and heating systems. According to UNICEF’s 18 November press release, at least 1,496 educational institutions and 662 health facilities in Ukraine had been damaged or destroyed since February 2022.
Tomorrow, Russell and several Council members are likely to express concern about the war’s harmful long-term effects on an entire generation of children in Ukraine, including due to the disruption of education and trauma. A 25 October report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Ukraine found that power cuts resulting from Russia’s attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine have severely curtailed civilians’ enjoyment of the rights to health and education, with severe effects on children. Disruptions to education, both in institutions teaching in person and online, have reduced the quality of education and skills acquired by children and has posed mental health challenges to children, according to the report.
The Conflict Observatory representative is expected to present the findings of a report published by their team today (3 December), which alleges that Russia has “engaged in the systematic, intentional, and widespread coerced adoption and fostering of children from Ukraine”. As has been the case in the past, tomorrow’s discussion on allegations concerning the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia is expected to be contentious. Russia is likely to argue that its actions represent a humanitarian evacuation of children from conflict zones in compliance with international human rights law. Other members are expected to accuse Russia of violating IHL by forcibly transferring and deporting Ukrainian children within Russian-occupied territories and to Russia, as the US did in a statement issued today on the Conflict Observatory’s report. These members may emphasise the importance of accountability for such acts, and might reference in this regard the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March 2023 against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for allegedly committing the war crime of “unlawful deportation” and “unlawful transfer” of children from Ukraine to Russia.
Last year, Council members organised several Arria-formula meetings to promote their differing narratives concerning the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia. (For background and more information, see our 4 April 2023, 28 April 2023, and 9 November 2023 What’s in Blue stories.) The COI on Ukraine has referred to the matter in several of its reports, documenting instances of transfers of children from Ukraine to Russia that it determined to be unlawful deportations that constitute a war crime. It has highlighted, however, several challenges in investigating the issue, including discrepancy in the information provided by Ukrainian and Russian authorities regarding the number of children transferred or deported and lack of access to Russia or to areas under its control in Ukraine.
Several members are expected to express concern about grave violations committed against children in the context of the war in Ukraine. (The six grave violations, as determined by the Security Council in its children and armed conflict agenda, are child recruitment and use; killing and maiming; rape and other forms of sexual violence; attacks on schools and hospitals; abductions; and the denial of humanitarian access.) The Secretary-General’s 2023 annual report on children and armed conflict listed the Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups for committing attacks on schools and hospitals (480) and the killing of children (136) in Ukraine in 2022. This marked the first time that a permanent member of the Security Council was listed in the Secretary-General’s annual report. That report also expressed concern about the high number of children killed (80) and attacks on schools and hospitals (212) by the Ukrainian armed forces but did not list them in the report’s annexes. The Secretary-General’s 2024 annual report documents the killing of 80 children in Ukraine in 2023, including 59 instances attributed to Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups and nine attributed to the Ukrainian armed forces. It also records 335 attacks on schools and hospitals, including 249 attributed to Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups and 70 attributed to the Ukrainian armed forces.
There are also likely to be calls emphasising the need for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Differing views are expected to be presented regarding the appropriate framework for achieving peace in Ukraine, however. Members aligned with Ukraine are likely to advocate for a just peace, conditioned on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders. Russia, in contrast, may argue that any settlement must reflect current realities on the ground, which, in its view, would require the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the four partially occupied regions in Ukraine (Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia).
There may also be broader discussion on developments that have recently heightened tensions, such as Russia’s intensified missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, the alleged involvement of troops from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the war, and the US’ reported lifting of restrictions on Ukraine’s use of US weapons, including the long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). These issues were also discussed during the Council’s latest meeting on Ukraine, held on 27 November. Ukraine, supported by the US, requested that meeting after Russia conducted an attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on 21 November using what Putin described as “a new conventional intermediate-range missile”. (For background and more information, see the brief on Ukraine in our December 2024 Monthly Forecast.)
