New op-ed: The Emergency of Rape Survivors and their “Children Born of War”
EuroWARCHILD’s Ingvill Constanze Ødegaard and Lina Stotz publsihed an op-ed in a German newspaper, the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, on 31 January 2023, addressing the situation of Ukrainian children born of war. Originally published in German, here: Ukraine: Das Drama vergewaltigter Frauen und ihrer „Kinder des Krieges“ | Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (ksta.de)
After being systematically raped by Russian soldiers, countless Ukrainian women are now becoming mothers. The “Children Born of War” might face a multitude of problems that should be addressed now.
In the early summer of 2022, reports of rapes of Ukrainian women and girls perpetrated by Russian soldiers during the war first emerged in Western media. That was almost nine months ago.
As a result, children are being born - not only in Ukraine, but also in Poland or Germany where Ukrainian women have fled. These children need to be taken care of. They need special psychological care, economic support, and a perspective in Ukraine without exclusion since they were born in the course of the Russian war of aggression. Reporting on the war should also take these children into account so that they are not forgotten in all the terrible turmoil of this war and also the UN with its aid organisations must take care of these children.
According to the UN, Russian soldiers are equipped with Viagra
An independent commission of the UN Human Rights Council is investigating the crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine since the invasion. Already a first report, published in October, speaks of a pattern of rape and other sexual violence by Russian forces. The report contains UN-verified evidence of sexual violence that may be essential for subsequent court cases.
The report documents incidents of sexual violence against children, men, women and the elderly. These include gang rape, sexual violence as a form of torture and sexual humiliation such as forced nudity. Some women were taken in small groups and raped, some were held for several days in flats controlled by Russian soldiers. Many of these crimes were accompanied by threats at gunpoint or threats to family members.
According to UN Special Representative Pramila Patten, Russian soldiers were equipped with Viagra allegedly to facilitate multiple rapes. The Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsperson, Lyudmyla Denisova, also reported on rapes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. According to Denisova, Russian soldiers told the victims that they would rape them until they were no longer capable of sexual contact with another man. Nine of the victims reportedly became pregnant.
Pregnancies and the children born are so far not being considered
The UN report states that, “the survivors and their families are deeply traumatised by the ordeal they suffered.” One victim told the Commission, “This experience is very shameful for me, and I am extremely scared and intimidated.” Some victims, the commission said, had contemplated suicide.
What the report hardly considers is that children can be born from rape. The few mentions of pregnancies in international reporting in Ukraine refer to the lack of access to abortions. The pregnancies themselves and thus also the children born - referred to in research as “Children Born of War” - remain unconsidered.
This is a glaring omission. There is a steadily growing research base on “Children Born of War” who exist all over the world. In Europe, for example, during the Second World War and the occupation period afterwards, and later in the 20th century during the civil war in Bosnia. Outside Europe, there are scholarly studies on “Children Born of War” in the Vietnam War, the genocide in Rwanda, as well as the civil wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Colombia.
“Children Born of War” are exposed to many dangers up to and including death
Despite the differences in these conflicts and the various backgrounds for conception, all research indicates that these children face particular challenges and dangers - in the worst case, death. The problems range from lack of citizenship and thus lack of access to many state benefits, to stigmatisation, discrimination, and exclusion as a "child of the enemy" by both the family and the immediate social environment and society. This often has a long, sometimes lifelong aftermath for the concerned children.
This also applies, for example, to the crimes against the Yazidis by the ISIS terrorist militia, which were recently classified as genocide by the German parliament. The enslaved and impregnated Yazidi women are not allowed to bring their children with them when they return to the community from ISIS captivity. Many of them therefore end up in shelters in Iraq, often without the mothers' knowledge or consent. Others have been left behind with ISIS fighters. Their future is uncertain.
Germans in particular are only too familiar with the phenomenon of “Children Born of War” from history
There is hardly a conflict without “Children Born of War.” Yet this topic is still reported on far too seldom. The foundation, Children Born of War Project is continuously working to expand the data and knowledge base. It promotes projects that implement the rights of these children and points to ongoing conflicts where it can be assumed that more “Children Born of War” will be born, as is currently the case in Ukraine, but also in Cameroon and South Sudan.
It is time that these innocent children receive greater attention. Germans are familiar with the phenomenon of “Children Born of War” from history. The harassment, discrimination, and violence that “Children Born of War” have to experience today were also experienced by many so-called “Russian children” in Germany, fathered by Soviet soldiers and born to German mothers at the end of World War II and in the years of occupation after.
In many cases, the “Children Born of War” were ostracised because of their fathers
This group is currently the subject of the research project EuroWARCHILD. Hundreds of thousands of women were raped by Soviet soldiers and an unknown number of children were born as a result. In many cases, these children were ostracised because of their fathers - Russians, war criminals.
One of these “Russian children” wrote a poem. Under the pseudonym Anton, the author released it before his death at an advanced age for publication in the volume “Distelblüten - Russenkinder in Deutschland” (Thistle Blossoms - Russian Children in Germany), published by an interest group of the same name:
“Actually, I have seven fathers. That's how many there were who attacked my mother. (...) 'Actually, I would like to have help.' Maybe I'm still talking. Before I die. Maybe...”
Lina Stotz, Ingvill Constanze Ødegaard
This article was first published in German in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, 31 January 2023: