UN experts have expressed concern about the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine on children. (document)
Geneva:
Russia must stop forcibly transferring children from Ukraine and provide information on those who have been taken away to ensure their return home, a U.N. committee said on Thursday.
Ukraine says 20,000 children have been forced to travel to Russia since the war broke out in February 2022. President Zelensky called the action “genocide.” Russia denies the accusations.
The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, a panel of 18 independent experts, pressed Russia last month on the expulsion allegations during a regular review of its records.
In conclusions published on Thursday, the experts urged Russia to “cease the forcible transfer or expulsion of children from occupied Ukrainian territory.”
Russia said that “the placement of evacuated children is first based on their request and with their consent.”
But committee vice-president Bragi Gudbrandson told reporters that experts concluded there was “evidence of children being forcibly transferred from Ukraine to Russia”.
“We can’t determine the number of these children, but we know there are a lot of them,” he said.
The experts asked Moscow to “provide information on the exact number of children taken from Ukraine and the whereabouts of each child.”
This is necessary so that “parents or legal representatives can trace them, including by identifying these children and registering their parentage, and to ensure the children are returned to their families and communities as quickly as possible”.
deprived of nationality
The committee, which monitors the Convention on the Rights of the Child, also expressed alarm at reports that Ukrainian children living in Russia even temporarily “have been deprived of Ukrainian citizenship, in violation of their rights under the Convention.”
Experts highlighted a decree issued by President Vladimir Putin last month to offer Russian citizenship through a simplified procedure to children who have been forcibly transferred or deported.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023 on war crime charges of illegally deporting children.
The International Criminal Court brought similar charges against Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights.
Russia is not a member of the ICC and insists the arrest warrant against Putin is “invalid.”
The committee expressed concern on Thursday about “Lvova-Belova’s alleged war crimes of illegal deportation and illegal transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.” Lvova-Belova’s mission is to protect children. .
It demanded that Moscow “investigate war crimes accusations” against her.
More broadly, experts expressed concern about the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine on children, noting that “indiscriminate attacks using explosive weapons have resulted in hundreds of child casualties”.
They specifically called on Moscow to ensure hospitals and schools were not targeted.
They also expressed concern about the situation of children in Russia, including reports that children, as adults, are being persecuted for expressing political views, particularly criticism of the war in Ukraine.
They emphasized the “extensive and systematic state propaganda about the war in Ukraine in schools” and called on Moscow to “end the politicization and militarization of schools.”
“We think this is a very significant risk to the future of these children who are being indoctrinated,” committee chairwoman Ann Skelton told reporters.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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