Dr Elvis Fokala is an Associate Professor and the head of the Children Rights Unit, Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria.
Dr Elvis Fokala
South Africa has a powerful opportunity to elevate its moral standing and authority in the international community by weighing in on an unfolding tragedy in the Russo-Ukraine war, and in the process remind the world of a similar African calamity.
That tragedy is the crisis of the tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who have been abducted and removed from their homeland by Russia in the course of the conflict.
This humanitarian crisis has been detailed in a recently released white paper “Safeguarding Children from Forced Transfers and Deportation” presented by the Bring Kids Back UA Task Force. Besides describing the heartbreaking reality, it documents how these actions have been classified as war crimes and calls for action from the international community.
For South Africa – and particularly with the current Government of National Unity – this issue provides a platform on which South Africa can project a reviving moral authority and drive efforts to improve the international regime when it comes to the rights of children.
But it can also be a spotlight to remind the world of the thousands of African children, in, for example, Northern Nigeria and Sudan, who face a similar ordeal, a phenomenon which is often forgotten.
Humanitarian issues, and particularly those involving children, are powerful drivers of consensus in the international community as we have seen in the role of the government of South Africa, in going to the International Court of Justice, arguing that Israel’s actions in Gaza were “genocidal in character”.
South Africa’s early victory in this process was, as the government said after the ruling, “a decisive victory for the international rule of law”.
The Ukraine and Sudan children issue presents another opportunity for the force of international law to be felt, particularly as the ICJ has already issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, a key Russian figure accused of involvement in the abductions.
South Africa’s ICJ action on Gaza, while initially divisive, appears to have now found a broader consensus both at home and elsewhere, that it was morally correct even if politically expensive.
This episode also served as a reminder that post-apartheid South Africa has a unique role to play in the world, trading off our unlikely peaceful transition to democracy and our stature imbued with the moral authority of Nelson Mandela.
Many forget, for example, the pivotal role South Africa and the now President Cyril Ramaphosa played in supporting the Northern Ireland peace process in the 90s, or similarly pivotal roles in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and elsewhere.
So, there are many good reasons for South Africa to pick up the cudgels in the effort to press Russia to return Ukraine’s children to their homeland and in doing so, to remind the world of the often-forgotten tragedy which is also occurring in Sudan and other countries in Africa.
The Ukraine task force white paper cites estimates that “tens of thousands” of children have been illegally abducted by Russia but, sadly, children across Africa endure a similar fate in the DRC, Sudan, and Mozambique with many being pressed into service as child soldiers.
Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, children in Afghanistan, the DRC, the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), Somalia, Syria and Yemen suffered the highest number of verified violations of children’s rights in conflict according to Save the Children.
For example, over 10 000 children were abducted in Somalia in the preceding decade – some 42% of all recorded child abductions in conflict situations globally during that period.
This is an issue which should matter to the world and a focus on the interests and rights of children is an issue which is both just and true to South Africa’s DNA.
South Africa, for example, is party to the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, which include provisions on the rights of displaced children and those affected by armed conflict.
Russia, it must be noted, is also a signatory and has been called to account for its actions in Ukraine in the context of its convention obligations.
This context as well as South Africa’s position in BRICS and its leading role in the broader community of nations identifying as non-aligned, provides it with a natural path to push for action which will assist the missing children of Ukraine and of those in Africa.
Indeed, some of the groundwork has been laid for this already. In June 2023, President Ramaphosa and other African leaders were reported to have raised the issue bravely and directly with Putin as part of the Africa peace initiative at the time.
Sadly, little more has been heard of this important first step but it cannot be difficult for South Africa to rise to this challenge.
South Africa has established herself as a powerhouse both in Africa and beyond, as a country which is committed to all the treaties it has ratified, and is also committed to calling out gross human rights violations in the world.
And that ideal should remain true whether it involves the missing children of Ukraine or those of Uganda, the DRC or South Sudan.
Dr Elvis Fokala is an Associate Professor and the head of the Children Rights Unit, Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria
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