Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Olena Kondratiuk took part in the first meeting of the National Council for Safeguarding Children's Rights, a coordinating body aimed at ensuring the implementation of the European standards for child protection and to the development of a coherent national policy in this area.
As the Deputy Speaker emphasised, this work is particularly relevant and critically important in the context of russia's full-scale invasion against Ukraine.
"The European Child Guarantee is the initiative of President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. It has been created for countries at peace. For states where main challenges are poverty, unequal access to services or social exclusion. In Ukraine, however, these challenges have been compounded by war,” stressed Olena Kondratiuk.
She recalled that thousands of Ukrainian children have become internally displaced and have been forced to seek refuge abroad. Another 1.5 million children are living under occupation, while almost 20 000, according to official data, have been deported or abducted by russia.
“That is why we need more than a box-ticking approach. We need a comprehensive system in which different state institutions work in a coordinated manner and every child receives support, regardless of where they are or what they have been through,” said Olena Kondratiuk.
According to her, Ukraine has already become a pioneer in many areas of child protection under wartime conditions. In particular, it has scaled up distance learning for millions of children during the war, is building underground schools as a new safety standard, is developing protocols for large-scale psychological rehabilitation, and is working on the reintegration of children after deportation and occupation.
“This is not a reason for pride. It is a responsibility. And that is why the European Child Guarantee framework is needed right now — so that all this experience is not dispersed across different institutions, but becomes part of a unified state system,” said the Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament.
Olena Kondratiuk also emphasised a very real issue: “It is impossible to ensure quality education if teachers receive salaries that are incompatible with a decent standard of living. Child poverty and teacher poverty are parts of the same system.”
She also addressed deinstitutionalisation, noting that the move away from the boarding school system is the right direction; however, the state must honestly assess its own capacities and the number of foster families available. In her view, it is also timely to establish a higher central coordinating body for child protection policy.
“Ukraine today is not merely implementing the European Child Guarantee. We are adapting it to the realities of war. And this is not only humanitarian policy — it is a matter of national security, demographics, the economy, and our future in the European Union,” said Olena Kondratiuk.
Speaking during the meeting, the Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada addressed the Government separately.
“The government programme exists. The National Action Plan until 2030 has been approved. This is positive. But without a list of necessary draft laws, it remains a theoretical document without a legislative framework. Together with colleagues, we are waiting for a concrete list: which draft laws are required to implement this plan, in what sequence, and within what timelines they should be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada. Parliament is ready to work,” stressed Olena Kondratiuk.