Ukraine: 12-yr-old girl writes letter to UN's Guterres; appeals to uphold child rights

Amid the deteriorating condition of the war-torn country, Ukraine, a 12-year-old girl reportedly wrote a letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and appealed for the right to childhood and peaceful life. According to the reports of the RIA News agency, the deputy official representative of the UN Secretary-General Farhan Haka confirmed that the UN office had received a letter from a 12-year-old girl,  Faina Savenkova, hailing from Lugansk - a city in eastern Ukraine. "Yes, we received a letter," said Haka.

Apart from the letter, she also send a recorded message to the members of the UN Security Council urging the organisation to remember the rights of children living in the Donbas region - a historical, cultural, and economic region in south-eastern Ukraine. In the video, she reiterated the right to childhood and peaceful life. 

Notably, Savenkova was earlier included in the list of people posing a threat to the national security of Ukraine on a scandalous site named- Peacemaker. It is worth mentioning that Peacemaker is known for its scandalous publications in which it publishes the data of journalists, militias and other citizens, calling them "traitors to the motherland", according to RIA. While responding to the question of adding Savenkova to the Peacemaker site, the UN Secretary General's official representative urged not to use children and residents of conflict-affected regions for political purposes, reported RIA News agency.

Ukrainian girl urges UN to take down the reports of Peacemaker

According to the news agency, Savenkova sought help from Guterres and asked to convince the Ukrainian government to remove the personal information of minors from the Peacemaker site. She also requested to block the resource person whosoever has been providing information to the site. When the news agency asked Haka about the probable action that the UN would take in the near future in response to the letter, he reiterated that the organisation would urge the Ukrainian government to avoid using children and residents of conflict-affected regions for political purposes.

Ukrainian children are facing grave risks of physical health

Meanwhile, the first deputy representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky said that a copy of the letter was sent to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). According to the data of UNICEF, half a million girls and boys have been facing grave risks to their physical health and psychological well-being due to continuous war in the area. UNICEF’s Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, Afshan Khan, who recently returned from meeting children and families in eastern Ukraine said, "It is unconscionable that children in eastern Ukraine continue to go to schools with bullet holes and bomb shelters and live in neighbourhoods that are intermittently shelled and littered with landmines."

Image: ANI