South African Ukrainians urge support for UN child return resolution

The Ukrainian Association of South Africa (UAZA) is calling on the South African government and President Cyril Ramaphosa to support the United Nations General Assembly resolution titled “Return of Ukrainian Children,” which will be voted on Dec. 3. 

The resolution calls for the immediate, safe, and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children forcibly transferred or deported by Russia since 2014. They number approximately 20,000 children, according to the UN’s figures. 

UAZA President Kateryna Aloshyna said that South Africa cannot remain neutral on the issue of children’s rights.

“South Africa cannot abstain on children’s rights, even as a non-aligned country. Every child has the right to be with their family and community. There can be no long-lasting just peace in Ukraine, without children coming back,” Aloshyna said.

In 2023, during an African peace mission to Ukraine and Russia, Ramaphosa urged Russian Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin to return all forcibly deported Ukrainian children. Putin refused.

In November 2024, South Africa expressed its readiness to mediate for the repatriation of Ukrainian children. During Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s official visit to Pretoria on April 24, Ramaphosa was handed a list of 400 children who had been forcibly taken to Russia.

The urgency of the resolution was echoed by Prof. Elvis Fokala of the Center for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria.

“Childhood has an expiry date, that is why we cannot postpone this matter. This resolution is a vital message to all those who abduct children in Nigeria, Sudan, and other countries on the African continent and beyond: children are not pawns of war and that the international community does not accept such actions,” he said.

In June 2024, thirteen South African human rights organisations, including the Center for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, Democracy Works Foundation, Lawyers for Human Rights, and others, jointly called for the return of Ukrainian children.

UAZA also reiterated that since 2022, Russian legislation allows the alteration of Ukrainian children’s citizenship, names, surnames, and even birthdates without parental consent. By 2025, Russia had not only continued these practices but intensified the deportations as part of its program of “re-education.”