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The National Round table "Porcelain Childhood: Ways to Happiness for Little Ukrainians" was held by R2P in Kyiv

July 14, 2023

The National Round table "Porcelain Childhood: Ways to Happiness for Little Ukrainians" was held by our advocacy colleagues in Kyiv. This event was a continuation of the discussions initiated by the R2P in Lviv, Chernivtsi, Vinnytsia and Dnipro regions since the beginning of the year.

The roundtable brought together the representatives of the scientific, judicial, lawyer, and deputy communities, representatives of national and international organizations, as well as officials of state and local authorities.
Oleksandr Galkin, R2P President, noted that the topic of children has been and remains the most sensitive, and that the R2P team continues its efforts to help those in need.

Kateryna Zadoenko, R2P manager of the Ukraine Protection Consortium project, emphasized that work in the field of child protection is not limited to the advocacy component, but includes the comprehensive work of lawyers, social workers and psychologists:

"The geography of our work is gradually changing, we will move to the East and South. From September of this year, we will help women and children in Kharkivska, Mykolaivska, Khersonska, Zaporizska oblasts, and will continue our work in Dnipropetrovska oblast. We will develop a new activity for us - creating safe spaces for women and children. We must do everything to ensure that Ukrainian children remain safe and have opportunities for development".

The discussion at the event was organized in three main areas:
1) prospects for the development of national legislation in the field of child protection;
2) development of family forms of upbringing and childcare;
3) "military" challenges in the field of child protection.

"The current legislation in the field of child protection is not characterized by systematic, and sometimes it is not devoid of Soviet approaches. To build a high-quality child-centered legislative framework, there is a need for its systematic, not fragmentary, updating by adopting a separate code - the Code on the Rights of the Child", - said Maryna Us, R2P legal analyst.

Lyudmyla Volynets, a well-known expert in the field of child protection, emphasized that the update of legislation should be preceded by the development and consolidation of a unified state policy in the field of child protection.

Pavlo Sushko, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, emphasized the imbalance of the child protection system at the national level and the need to establish a centralized state body as soon as possible.

Moderating the panel discussion, Kseniia Gedz, R2P Advocacy coordinator, drew attention to the importance of introducing an administrative procedure for registering births that occurred in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine in order to ensure equal access to registration and documents for all children born in Ukraine.

Kateryna Rashevska, lawyer of the Regional Human Rights Center, drew attention to the implementation of international standards on repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration of child victims of armed conflict into national legislation and law enforcement practice and noted that children are the basis of national security.

Based on the results of the event, the participants will develop conclusions and recommendations on ways to overcome problems in the field of child protection and improve the relevant legislation.

We thank all the participants of the Round table meeting who joined the event. Only through joint efforts can we protect the rights of children in Ukraine!

«The event was held within the framework of the project "Protecting lives with Integrated Multi-sector Assistance (UPC-PRIMA)" implemented by "Right to Protection" Charitable Foundation as a partner of the Ukraine Protection Consortium coordinated by Save the Children. The program is implemented with the financial support of the USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)"