“We should develop new algorithm for returning children”: Report on Russia’s violation of Ukrainian children’s rights presented in Kyiv

On June 27, the Child Rights Protection Center hosted a presentation of a special report by the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights entitled “Unbloomed. Violation of the rights of Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and in Russia: deportation, militarization, indoctrination”. 

The report highlights gross violations of children’s rights in the conditions of the full-scale Russian invasion: killing and maiming, recruitment of children into the enemy’s armed forces and use in combat operations, rape and other forms of sexual violence, abduction, and more. Data for the report was collected from February 2022 to April 2023. 

In particular, Onysiia Syniuk, legal analyst at Human Rights Centre ZMINA, Alyona Lunyova, ZMINA advocacy director, and Kateryna Rashevska, lawyer at the Regional Center for Human Rights, contributed to the preparation of the report. 

During the report presentation, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said that Russia holds Ukrainian children in 57 regions of the Russian Federation. 

“In 16 regions, at least 380 children became victims of forcible transfer to Russian families. There have also been cases of abduction of children by the Russian military in the temporarily occupied territories for intimidation, pressure on relatives, and intelligence data collection,” the Ombudsman noted. 

He also said that Russia involves minors in the war as spies, fire spotters, as well as in campaigns of forced mobilization of Ukrainian citizens in temporarily occupied territories: sometimes, children even become actors for propaganda videos. 

Kateryna Rashevska, lawyer at the Regional Center for Human Rights, said that starting on June 15, 2023, the Russians daily take about 100 children to so-called “re-education” camps. The expert also said that Ukrainian children began to be taken to the territory of Belarus even before the start of the full-scale war. 

According to her, initially, those were children from the “DPR” and “LPR” but now it is already known about children from the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region, Kherson region. It is also known about at least four institutions where Russian “medical-psychological-pedagogical rehabilitation” takes place. 

Onysiia Syniuk, legal analyst at Human Rights Centre ZMINA, said during the event: all actions aimed at transferring Ukrainian children to the families of Russian citizens are coordinated, and the Russians have been actively working on it. 

“As a state, we have to develop a new algorithm for returning children, and we are doing it. There are communication channels. I have repeatedly raised the issue of children with the other side. The answer has always been the same – the Russian side is not ready to consider the issue of returning children even now,” Dmytro Lubinets said. 

Watch the video from the event at the link. 

Read the report at the link.