At the PACE hearings, the low rate of return of children from Ukraine illegally deported to the Russian Federation was called unsatisfactory. Politicians and experts are calling for redoubled attention to the problem and the involvement of neutral intermediaries.
According to official data from the Ukrainian side alone, the number of Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia is 19,546 people, but this figure could be much higher. The Russian authorities do not demonstrate any intention to return children abducted from Ukraine and do not provide the Ukrainian side with information about their places of stay.
Experts and politicians from various European countries are calling for the creation of a new international mechanism for the return of Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia, and for the involvement of neutral countries in it. This was discussed during the hearings of the Bureau Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), dedicated to the situation of children from Ukraine, in particular, the problem of their return from the occupied Ukrainian territories, the Russian Federation and Belarus . The hearing took place on Friday, December 15, in Paris.
Every day the chances of returning children from the Russian Federation are decreasing
In April of this year, PACE adopted a resolution on the problem of Ukrainian children illegally displaced by Russia, in which it called for creating conditions for their safe return. However, as PACE member from Portugal Paulo Pisco, the author of the report on the basis of which the resolution was concluded, said during the hearings, “nothing has changed in this situation” in seven months.
According to reports from the Russian authorities, more than 700 thousand Ukrainian children were taken to the territory of the Russian Federation or to the occupied regions of Ukraine. Authorities in Kyiv say the figure could be as high as 300,000, while officially recorded cases of child abductions by Russians are around 20,000. According to Piscu, Ukraine needs the help of the international community to “establish the names of these children, the place and conditions of their stay.” “There is information thatUkrainian children are scattered across 50 regions of Russia, many of them were adopted, changed their nationality and were Russified. This may mean that we have lost these children forever,” said the PACE deputy. Piscu also stressed that the number of children who were returned – more than 360 – is “very unsatisfactory.” “And the more time passes, the more difficult this task becomes,” warned the Portuguese politician.
According to the PACE rapporteur, the deportation of Ukrainian children by the Russian authorities is “a very well-organized plan” supported by the state, in which all government officials take part: from the top to local officials. In his opinion, the issue of the return of abducted children should become a priority of the international community at all levels and should be more widely publicized. “In my opinion, we have taken only a few small steps to resolve the situation, and much more needs to be done,” Piscu emphasized.
There is a lack of new international mechanisms for the return of children
According to official data, the war unleashed by Russia claimed the lives of 512 Ukrainian children, 1,158 children were injured and maimed, 75 children became victims of torture in the territories occupied by the Russian Federation, and the facts of sexual violence against children by Russian soldiers are “horrifying,” he said in his speech at During the hearings in PACE, the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights, Dmitry Lubinets. According to him, the youngest victim of sexual violence committed by Russians in Ukraine is four years old.
Regarding the illegal movement of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian Ombudsman noted that this practice has continued since 2014. According to Lubinets, this is one of the signs of the crimes of genocide. He called on international partners to “find solutions, real mechanisms that will produce results, such as political and diplomatic pressure.” to Russia. “We have not been able to get our children back despite continuous efforts. Because the Russian authorities simply refuse to do this and do not demonstrate any desire to establish contacts with us,” Lubinets noted.
One of the ways to communicate with the Russian Federation could be to involve in the process of returning children representatives of third countries – neutral in their position on the war in Ukraine, for example, Qatar, who has already taken part as a mediator in this process, says Daria Kasyanova, an expert at the non-governmental organization Ukrainian Child Rights Network. “We must invent new mechanisms for this, because the mechanism of international humanitarian law has proven to be ineffective,” Kasyanova emphasized.
In March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova over the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. This means that now both of them have the official status of suspects in an international crime and in 123 countries around the world authorities are obliged to arrest them.
Source : DW
