Collaborative on Global Children's Issues

These resources are for the webinar, "Negotiating the End of the War in Ukraine: Who is on the Children’s Side?"

Government of Ukraine

• Bring Kids Back UA is an initiative of the President of Ukraine to unite the efforts of Ukrainian government agencies, partner countries and international organizations to return Ukrainian children.
• Children of War is a platform created by the Ukrainian Ministry of Reintegration and the National Information Bureau.

• The Coordination Center for Family Upbringing and Child Care Development is an advisory body of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and was established at the initiative of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, First Lady Olena Zelenska and with the support of President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Government of the United States

U.S. Department of State

• U.S. Department of State, Joint Statement on the United States-Ukraine Meeting in Jeddah, 11 March 2025.
• U.S. Department of State, The Kremlin’s War Against Ukraine’s Children, 24 August 2023 (archived).
• U.S. Department of State, Imposing Sanctions and Visa Restrictions on Individuals and Entities Russia to Promote Accountability for Forced Transfer and Deportation of Children During Russia’s Illegal War Against Ukraine, Press Statement, Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State, 24 August 2023 (archived).
• Remarks by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, UN Security Council Briefing on Ukraine, August 24, 2023.

U.S. House of Representatives

• House Resolution 154: Recognizing Russian actions in Ukraine as a genocide, introduced 24 February, 2023, and referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
• House Resolution 149: Condemning the illegal abduction of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation, introduced February 21, 2023, and passed on 19 March, 2024.

U.S. Senate

•  Senate Resolution 236: A resolution calling for the return of abducted Ukrainian children before finalizing any peace agreement to end the war against Ukraine, introduced 20 May 2025 and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
  
• S.1241 - Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, introduced 01 April 2025 and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
• Grassley, Klobuchar, Durbin, Colleagues Seek Clarification about Status of Efforts to Track Abducted Ukrainian Children, 21 March 2025.
  
• Senate Resolution 110: A Resolution condemning Russia’s illegal abduction of Ukrainian children, introduced 5 March 2025 and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
• Senate Resolution 158: A resolution condemning the deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation and the forcible transfer of children within territories of Ukraine that are temporarily occupied by Russian forces, introduced April 17, 2023.

International Organizations

• United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, The impact of the armed conflict on children’s rights in Ukraine 24 February 2022, 31 December 2024.
• Global Affairs Canada, Joint communiqué on the Human Dimension of Ukraine’s Peace Formula, 1 November 2024.
• Global Affairs Canada, Joint Declaration on the creation of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children​, 2 February 2024.
• Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Recommendation 2265 on the Situation of the children of Ukraine, adopted 25 January 2024.
• Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Resolution 2529 on the Situation of the children of Ukraine, adopted 25 January 2024.
• UNICEF, Fulfilling the rights of children without parental care displaced from Ukraine, July 2023. 
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Moscow Mechanism: Report on Violations and Abuses of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, related to the Forcible Transfer and/or Deportation of Ukrainian Children to the Russian Federation, 4 May 2023. 
• United Nations Human Rights Council, Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, 31 March 2023.
• International Criminal Court, Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, 17 March 2023.

International Law and Policy Guidance

• World Relief, Faith Leaders Urge President Trump and Secretary Rubio to Prioritize Return of Ukrainian Children in Peace Negotiations, April 3, 2025.
  
• Atlantic Council, Vladyslav Havrylov, Russia’s mass abduction of Ukrainian children may qualify as genocide, July 27, 2023.
  
• Georgetown University Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues, International Law is Unambiguous When it Comes to Protecting Children in the Midst of Conflict, 5 July 2023.
• Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict and the Generating Respect Hub, University of York Centre for Applied Human Rights, Children and Armed Conflict: A Legal Glossary on Abduction and Deportation, June 2023.
• United Nations General Assembly, 2019 Resolution on the Rights of the Child (on children outside of family care), 18 December 2019.
• United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, The Six Grave Violations Against Children During Armed Conflict: The Legal Foundation, November 2013.
• American Red Cross, Summary of  the The Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols, April 2011.
• United Nations General Assembly, Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, 19 December 2009.
• United Nations Security Council, Resolution 1612 (on children and armed conflict), 26 July 2005.
• United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 17 July 1998.
• United Nations General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989.
• Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), Article 77 - Protection of children, 8 June 1977.
• United Nations General Assembly, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 9 December 1948.

Research

• The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, Global Impact of Funding Cuts on Children and their Protection in Humanitarian Contexts, April 2025.
• Humanitarian Research Lab, Yale School of Public Health, Intentional, Systematic, & Widespread: Russia's Program of Coerced Adoption and Fostering of Ukraine's Children, 3 December 2024.
• Freedom House, Stolen Childhood: How the Belarusian Regime is Erasing Ukrainian Children's Identity through Displacement, Re‑education, and Militarization, October 2024.
• Vladyslav Havrylov, The illegal deportation of Ukrainian children is a crime organized and financed by Russian officials, 26 April 2024.
• Humanitarian Research Lab, Yale School of Public Health, Belarus’ Collaboration with Russia in the Systematic Deportation of Ukraine’s Children: A Conflict Observatory Report, 12 December 2023.
• Almenda and Civil Rights Defenders, Youth Movements as the Instrument of Indoctrination and Militarization in the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, December 2023.
• Regional Center for Human Rights, Way Home: Mechanism and Policy Framework for the Return of Illegally Deported and Forcibly Transferred Children, 13 September 2023.
• Almenda and Civil Rights Defenders, The Youth Policy of the Russian Federation as a Tool for Eradicating Identity in the Temporary Occupied Territories of Ukraine, undated.

Technical Guidance and Materials

• ​The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, Toolkit on Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC), 1 January 2017.
  
• ​The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, Field Handbook on Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC), 1 January 2016.