The deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and Russian-controlled territories could be considered a war crime.
The forced transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children to temporarily occupied territories and/or Russian territory may constitute war crimes. This is the conclusion reached by the OSCE expert mission. Ukrinform.
The corresponding report, prepared within the framework of the “Moscow mechanism” of the OSCE, entitled In violation and abuse of international humanitarian law and human rights law, war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the forced migration and / or deportation of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation published on Thursday 4 May on the OSCE website.
The report notes the fact of large-scale movement of Ukrainian children from the territory of Ukraine to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and the territory of the Russian Federation. The focus of the document is on orphans and unaccompanied children.
According to the report, after being transferred to the territory of the Russian Federation, Ukrainian children were “exposed to the influence of pro-Russian information campaigns, which often amounted to total re-education.” At the same time, Russia “does not take any steps to actively promote the return of Ukrainian children.” On the contrary, “it creates different obstacles for families seeking to return their children.”
“The mission found that while some cases of child displacement comply with Russia’s obligations under international humanitarian law, other cases of unauthorized child displacement, transfer and long-term placement of Ukrainian children are violate IHL, and in some cases constitute a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and war crimes, in particular, violation of the prohibition of forced transfer or deportation under Article Four of the Geneva Convention,” the report said.
The mission also found that unjustified long stays or unreasonable logistical obstacles on the part of the Russian authorities violate the obligation to facilitate family reunification and are contrary to the principles enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention.
In addition, the Mission considers that Russia’s transfer of Ukrainian children to Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine or to Russian territory is a disregard for obligations to establish binding mechanisms under the Fourth Geneva Convention to track these children, report their whereabouts and facilitate. their repatriation or reunification with their families” and this is a violation of international humanitarian law.
In addition, the Mission concluded that subjecting unaccompanied children to adoption or similar assimilation measures is “inconsistent with the Fourth Geneva Convention”. Changing the citizenship of Ukrainian children is also a violation of the Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
The document states that the Russian Federation not only repeatedly clearly violated the interests of children, “but also denied their right to identity, the right to a family, the right to unite with their family, and violated also their rights to education, access to information, right to rest, recreation, play, leisure and participation in cultural and artistic life, as well as the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, right to health and right to freedom and security.”
“The mission concluded that the practice of forced migration and/or deportation of Ukrainian children to the temporarily occupied territories and to the territory of the Russian Federation may constitute a crime against humanity in the form of “deportation or forced removal of the population ,” the report said.
The document calls on the Russian Federation “to immediately stop the practice of forced transfer or deportation of children from Ukraine to the temporarily occupied territories and to Russia”, as well as to immediately compile and provide complete lists of names and locations of all displaced children, cancel their adoption and introduce an appropriate moratorium and actively promote family reunification of all children who have been forcibly removed or expelled from Ukraine.
The report was prepared by OSCE Moscow Mechanism experts Elina Steinerte (Latvia), Veronika Belkova (Czech Republic) and Cecilia Hellestvait (Norway), who have extensive experience in the field of international humanitarian law and human rights.
The “Moscow Mechanism” is the work method of the OSCE, which makes it possible to send missions of experts to assist the participating States in solving a specific problem regarding the human dimension.
The mechanism was adopted in 1991 at a conference in Moscow. As for the problems of Ukraine, it has been launched twice – in March and June 2022. Experts consider, in particular, the consequences of the Russian aggression for the humanitarian situation and human rights and presented two reports where they pointed out the many violations caused by the war.
Recall that PACE previously recognized the deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia as genocide and called on the ISS to consider the possibility of criminal prosecution for this crime.
As you know, on March 17, the ISS issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Ombudsman Maria Lvovo-Belova. They are suspected of involvement in the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.
Source: korrespondent
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