Human Rights Activists Demand Removal of Orphans from ATO

Experts have pointed out that 3585 children, including 150 orphans, are still in orphanages, special schools, and children’s homes in the ATO.

As reported by a correspondent from the Human Rights Information Center, this was stated by representatives of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), who monitor human rights in places of custodial care.

To draw attention of officials to the issue, human rights activists today, on the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, held a demonstration at the Cabinet of Ministers. During the demonstration, they displayed drawings made by students of various establishments during the military conflict.

 “The evacuation of orphans and other children deprived of parental care, who are in the institutions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, remains an acute issue. In Ukraine, child care centers are only half full with an average of 45 to 60% of capacity. Therefore, there are places to bring those children to from the dangerous territory,” says Tetiana Pechonchyk, head of the Human Rights Information Center.

33 residential institutions are located 70 kilometers from the line of conflict. For example, in Sievierodonetsk, 86 orphans are studying in the regional secondary boarding school, located 28 km from the town of Shchastya,. Within 20-kilometers of the ATO border is Dzerzhinska, a boarding school, which now has 319 students.

According to the results of monitoring visits conducted by public monitors together with representatives from the Department of NPM, proper conditions of living and learning have been created in the border areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. But, if the situation is further aggravated, those places must rely on their bomb shelters, and even those are cramped and without proper ventilation or drinking water.

“The management of those institutions do not have a clear plan for the evacuation of children (what transport to use, to where). During the summer holidays, almost all school-age children remain with their parents near the front lines, indicating a low level of awareness among parents about the threat to the life and health of their children,” said Katerina Chumak, Deputy head of the Department on the implementation of the national preventive mechanism of the Office of the Ombudsman.

On 9 February, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, in response to the presentation of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights on evacuation in Donbass, instructed to “urgently take the necessary measures to resolve the issues raised.” But, until now, the problem is not solved.

“We, monitors the National Preventive Mechanism, urge government officials to take personal control of the immediate evacuation of 150 orphans remaining in the zone of conflict. Managers of institutions where children who have a parent or guardian study, without the authorization of whom the child cannot be taken out, must provide a road map of evacuation, namely to announce who will provide transportation and where the institution will be evacuated,” says Olexander Gatiyatullin advocacy department specialist at the All-Ukrainian Network of PLWH (people living with HIV).