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Under the Dome of a Safe Childhood: Emergency Response as an Effective Measure of Protection: Right to Protection Held a National Round Table in Kyiv

November 7, 2024

Developing a comprehensive system of emergency response measures that will not only ensure children’s safety in critical conditions but also contribute to their further socialisation and integration into a stable environment was the key issue discussed at a roundtable held by Right to Protection. Representatives of state authorities, NGOs, charities, and international institutions attended the event.

The Under the Dome of a Safe Childhood: Emergency Response as an Effective Measure of Protection roundtable discussion was held in Kyiv on 1 November 2024 as part of the Ukraine Protection Consortium project and was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

A key element of child protection reform processes in Ukraine is building a protection system that can adapt to crises and emergencies. Therefore, the event organised by the Fund provides an opportunity to find an answer to the question: How can we build an emergency response system that will not only save lives but also facilitate the integration of children into a stable and safe environment?

The roundtable discussions included:

legislative regulation of child protection in emergency situations: current state and prospects for improvement;
international standards for the protection of children's rights during armed conflict: theory and Ukrainian realities;
coordination and methodological support of children's services in the field of emergency response;
patronage as a response to emergency challenges in the field of child protection;
evacuation measures in emergency situations;
digitalisation of child protection: problems and prospects.

Maryna Us, Head of Child Protection Advocacy at R2P, emphasised that the current situation in Ukraine and the world in crises and emergencies demonstrates that peacetime algorithms do not work as they should. The Council of Europe's Strategy for the Rights of the Child for 2022–2027 highlights the need to build robust child protection systems that can adapt to such situations.

Maryna Us, Head of Child Protection Advocacy at the Right to Protection

'We are witnessing an increase in wars and natural disasters in the modern world.. And, unfortunately, according to statistics, almost every sixth child in the world has lived in war. And no matter how scary it may sound, every country must be prepared for this. And the legislative experience of Ukraine, which we are already developing today, can be applied in other countries. Legislation plays a huge role in protecting children, particularly in emergency situations'

According to her, after the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian legislation was actively developed in the direction of emergency response: this includes the evacuation of children, the provision of additional grounds for granting a child the status of a child deprived of parental care, the possibility of placing a child left without parental care on temporary conditions in functioning foster families and family-type children's homes, etc. . ‘Despite the fact that some of the changes were belated and fragmented, they have strengthened the protection of children in emergency situations. However, on the other hand, they have deepened the problem of imbalance and conflicts in the current legislation,’ said Maryna Us.

‘It is necessary to conduct a complete revision of the current child protection legislation, and then talk about its systematisation, possibly through codification. We need to start by developing a child protection plan (strategy). Then develop a Concept for updating legislation. Legislation should be the first line of defence for children both in normal and emergency situations,’ said Maryna Us, Head of Child Protection Advocacy at the Right to Protection.

The issue of social service provision was also discussed at the roundtable. In particular, Natalia Lakatosh, Deputy Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Children, stressed that many communities do not have service providers. That is why, according to Natalia Lakatosh, it is necessary to act comprehensively.

Natalia Lakatosh, Deputy Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Children

‘That is why we need to work with communities and introduce changes at the legislative level to solve this problem. And our main focus is to organise this and to ensure communication between all areas - between centres, between services, between departments. Because only coordinated work can produce any result. We are actively communicating with everyone through meetings, and we have a whole department of methodological support that is working to clarify these issues so that this problem can be resolved. We hope for fruitful results of our work’

The roundtable was also attended by MP Pavlo Sushko. Using the example of his work in the communities of Kharkiv region, he raised the issue of the real capacity of communities to promptly identify children left without parental care and to provide an emergency response to violations of children's rights. The MP focused on the causes of the existing problems in the field of child protection and ways to solve them.