Inside Education Reporter
The two-day Free the Children Conference and civil society engagement whose aim is to design a roadmap to support the repatriation of children forcibly removed to Russia at the start of the Ukraine invasion in February 2022 – was held in South Africa recently.
Among the delegates was former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko,
Ukrainian Ambassador Extraordinary HE Ms Liubov Abravitova, Professor Cheryl Hendricks – former Executive Head of the African Institute of South Africa in the Human Sciences Research Council, Professor William Gumede – Associate Professor, School of Governance at Wits University and Executive Chairperson of Democracy Works Foundation.
Moderator and In Transformation Initiative member Daniel Ngoepe pointed out that South Africa has a history of the struggle for human rights and has a lot in common with Ukraine and its fight for its existence and, more especially, the freedom of the more than 19,000 children abducted from Russian-controlled territories including Ukraine.
Ngoepe said there was no greater crime against humanity than the abduction of Ukrainian children and the children stolen from the Russian-controlled territories.
He urged society not to just speak up but to act because children everywhere were becoming victims of crime. “Children in Nigeria, South Sudan and in many war-torn countries are subjected to violence and crime”.
“South Africa has a role to play in campaigns, engagements, and finding practical ways to solve the problem. South Africa can reclaim its credibility as the voice for those who are being oppressed, as we did with Palestine, and apply the same principle to the children of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian Ambassador HE Liubov Abravitova said the 10 years of Russian occupation of Ukraine and the two years of its invasion have unleashed untold horror and violence on the people of her country, with thousands losing their lives and thousands more losing their homes.
“The suffering of the children is difficult to pronounce. But more than 500 children have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced and removed from their homes. The children are targeted and taken to Russia in what Moscow says are attempts at rehabilitation and ending gangsterism.
“This is nothing but an attempt at re-education and collective brainwashing of Ukrainian children. There are many similarities with South Africa during apartheid when children were targeted at a young age.
“Estimates are that during apartheid 8 000 children under the age of 18 were held in prisons with little protection. So our pain is understandable to South Africans.
“South Africa believes in the rights of children as enshrined in your wonderful Constitution. South Africa’s cooperation with Ukraine can help us get the children back. Your President Cyril Ramaphosa’s initiative and his peace mission is an example of your support for our plight”.
Professor Cheryl Hendricks in her opening remarks said South Africa will always support those who feel injustices because of its past.
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko painted a picture of the horrors of what the Ukranians were being subjected to during what he described as his country’s “12th war” with Russia.
“The first victim is always a child when occupiers come into a country,” he said.
“Thousands of elderly people are raped and murdered. Please don’t look away. Be on the side of the good. Being neutral in the face of evil is to multiply evil. You have lived through what we lived,” he said while appealing to South Africa to support their cause.
Professor William Gumede assured the Ukranians that South Africa’s civil society wants to give support to their cause and that the Democracy Works Foundation needs to build capacity and support those who fight for democracy in Africa and beyond.
Gumede said the economic costs of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were huge not only for South Africa but for the continent as a whole and that is the reason why it is important for South Africa to help resolve the conflict.
He said Ukraine is waging a colonial war against Russia “the same way South Africans waged a colonial war against apartheid which gave rise to our democracy.
“Our foreign policy,” therefore, Gumede said, “must also reflect our constitutional democracy”. And “As Africans, if we do nothing, we will provoke a global impunity”.
On the issue of children: “Why are children important? Children and women suffer the most during conflict. It is imperative we support children and women in war-torn countries such as Sudan, Nigeria and in Gaza”.
INSIDE EDUCATION
