Child abductions during the Russian invasion of Ukraine/ Child abductions in the Russo-Ukrainian War

The abduction of Ukrainian children by the Russian authorities is a crime against humanity! A crime that, among other things, was accompanied by other persistent violations of children's rights: to identity, to family, to education, to access to information, to rest, to leisure and participation in cultural life and the arts, as well as the rights to thought, conscience and religion, to health, to freedom and security. International humanitarian law categorically prohibits the transfer of children to other states (given the particular vulnerability of this category of protected persons and the fact that they cannot make informed choices for themselves) with the only exception being urgent reasons related to health.

On March 15, 2023, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry found that Russia committed a wide range of war crimes in Ukraine, including deliberate killings, systematic torture, and deportation of children. Raising children of war in a foreign nation and culture can constitute an act of genocide if it is intended to erase their national identity. On April 27, 2023, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution on the forced deportation of Ukrainian children and adults to Russian territory, recognizing such actions as genocide. Genocide researcher Timothy D. Snyder stated that “the mass abduction of children and the attempt to assimilate them into a foreign culture constitutes genocide under Article 2, Section E, of the 1948 Genocide Convention.”

Mykola Kuliba,
founder and director of the Save Ukraine NGO