The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights has released a report on violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the forced transfer and/or deportation of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation. This is the first separate special international report on the problem of illegal displacement of Ukrainian children by Russia.
The report was prepared by an independent mission of experts from the OSCE Human Dimension Mechanism, which was used for the third time at the initiative of Ukraine and 45 other OSCE member states.
It is expected that the report's substantiated conclusions regarding a significant number of violations and abuses of international humanitarian and human rights law, war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the forced displacement and/or deportation of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation will contribute to international efforts and the development of mechanisms to ensure justice and bring to justice those who ordered and executed these heinous crimes.
The report states that since February 24, 2022, and earlier, a large number of Ukrainian children have been transferred to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and to the territory of the Russian Federation. This may qualify as a crime against humanity - "deportation or forced displacement of the population."
The authors of the document also emphasize that the evacuation and continued displacement of Ukrainian children without their consent is a violation of international humanitarian law, and in some cases a serious violation of the IV Geneva Convention and a war crime.
Russia's actions, such as changing the citizenship of Ukrainian children, adopting unaccompanied children and similar assimilation measures, are also considered crimes in violation of this Convention.
It is also stated that forcibly displaced or deported Ukrainian children find themselves in a completely Russian environment, particularly in terms of language, customs and religion, and are influenced by a pro-Russian information campaign, which often amounts to purposeful re-education and involvement in military education.
It was stated that the Russian Federation creates various obstacles for families seeking to return their children, and also prevents the establishment of a list of children and their whereabouts, which is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
In addition, there have been numerous and repeated violations of the best interests and rights of children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In particular, rights to identity, family and family reunification, education, access to information, recreation, leisure, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, rights to liberty and security, etc.
"The cumulative effects of these multiple violations raise very serious concerns that the right of displaced Ukrainian children to be free from torture and ill-treatment and other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment has been violated," the report emphasized.
The mission formulated a number of recommendations, addressed primarily to the Russian Federation as an offender, as well as to Ukraine and other states and international organizations in the context of ensuring the protection of Ukrainian children deported to Russia.
In an official comment to the report, the Ukrainian side emphasized that the forced transfer or deportation of Ukrainian children to the Russian national group may constitute genocide under Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Russia refused to cooperate with the mission of the Moscow mechanism in the human dimension of the OSCE.
The full text of the report can be found at the link.