ANNUAL REPORTOF UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS 84 The Commissioner’s monitoring showcased that few children affected by hostilities and armed conflict receive this status because of low level of awareness of parents (other legal representatives) and the children themselves about the possibility of obtaining such a status. For example, children participating in the International Conference on the Protection of the Rights of the Child in Armed Conflict Living in Areas Next to Hostilities were unaware of their right and opportunity to obtain this status. There were also cases when the state district administration did not consider the issue of granting the status of a child affected by hostilities and armed conflict while the parents applied for it (Svatove SRA of Luhansk oblast), or the heads of institutions where orphaned children and children deprived of parental care, including those who moved from the non-government-controlled areas, are raised, did not initiate granting this status to children (Mykolaivka general boarding school #7 of Donetsk Olbast Council, Luhansk oblast orphanage #2). CHAPTER 3 According to the report of OSCE Monitoring Mission, in the period from January 2018 to October 2019, 31 children were killed or injured by mines and other explosive devices28. In addition, according to the study “Assessment of the needs of children affected by mines or explosives as a result of the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine”29 produced by Danish Refugee Council – Danish Demining Group with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in the period from 2014 to 2018, a total of 39 cases in which children were affected by mines or explosive remnants of war in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in the government-controlled areas were recorded. The results of the study were presented at a meeting of the Coordinating Council for the Rights of the Child and the Family where a representative of the Commissioner took part, and recommendations were sent to central executive authorities to strengthen assistance to children affected by mines or explosive remnants of armed conflict. In particular, it is necessary to collect data on injured children, including the cause of injury and the needs of victims, ensuring the right to adequate health care, rehabilitation, providing psychological and psychosocial, social, economic support to children affected by mines and other explosives. At the same time, the education process in the area of active hostilities continues. According to the Departments of Education and Science of Donetsk and Luhansk State Oblast Administrations, in cities and areas on the contact line with intense hostilities, where more than 33 thousand children live (in Donetsk oblast, 24 989 children, in Luhansk oblast, 8 255 children), 84 schools continue to operate. Children living in the areas along the contact line say that one of the most important concerns for them is the security of the education process – they pay attention to the lack of properly equipped bomb shelters and the presence of the military in schools. The media continue to report the facts of deployment of military servants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other paramilitary groups in the premises of schools in the areas along the contact line.It increases the risk of damaging the infrastructure of the educati system and endangers the civilian population. In this regard, the Commissioner welcomes that on 20 November, Ukraine accessed the Safe Schools Declaration providing contains a number of guidelines for preventing and responding to attacks and the use of education institutions for military purposes during the armed conflict. Today, 101 countries are signatories to the Safe Schools Declaration. 28 www.osce.org/uk/special-monitoring-mission-to-ukraine/442219?download=true. 29 http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Mine%20Victim%20Assistance%20UKR.pdf.