OSCE Mission: Deportation of Ukrainian children may amount to crime against humanity

The relevant report prepared within the framework of Moscow Mechanism, entitled "Report on Violations and Abuses of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, related to the Forcible Transfer and/or Deportation of Ukrainian Children to the Russian Federation", was published on the OSCE website on Thursday.

The report states the fact of the large-scale displacement of Ukrainian children from the territory of Ukraine to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and to the territory of the Russian Federation. The primary focus of the document has been placed on orphans and on unaccompanied children, since those constitute the most vulnerable groups among displaced children.

According to the report, Ukrainian children, when displaced to Russia, “are exposed to pro-Russian information campaign often amounting to targeted re-education.” Moreover, the Russian Federation “does not take any steps to actively promote the return of Ukrainian children.” Rather, it creates various obstacles for families seeking to get their children back.

“The Mission found that while certain cases of evacuations of children were in line with Russia’s duties under IHL, other practices of non-consensual evacuations, transfers and prolonged displacement of Ukrainian children constitute violations of IHL, and in certain cases amount to grave breaches of the Geneva Convention IV (GCIV) and war crimes, notably violation of the prohibition on forcible transfer or deportation under Article 49 of the GCIV,” the report says.

The Mission also found that non-justified prolonged stay or unfounded logistical hurdles violate the duty to facilitate reunification and contravene the principles embodied within the GCIV.

Further, the Mission is of the opinion that Russia’s relocalization of Ukrainian children to the temporarily occupied territories or Russian territory, disregard the duty to establish compulsory mechanisms under the GCIV to track these children, to communicate their whereabouts and facilitate their repatriation or reunification with their families, is a violation of the Geneva Conventions (GCs).

Moreover, the Mission concludes that the exposure of unaccompanied children to adoption or similar measures of assimilation is incompatible with the GCIV. Altering the nationality of Ukrainian children is a violation of the GCIV.

The Mission has found that on the Russian side there is currently no functioning mechanism for the repatriation of children to Ukraine or for transport to a third country. Rather, the Mission has found a consistent pattern that suggests that efforts by the Russian authorities to allow the movement of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation do not appear to include steps for further evacuation to third countries or back to safer areas in Ukraine. The system facilitates permanent stay and potentially unjustified delayed repatriation of these children, in disregard of IHL,” the experts say.

The Mission concluded that numerous and overlapping violations of the rights of the children deported to the Russian Federation have taken place. Not only has the Russian Federation manifestly violated the best interests of these children repeatedly, it has also denied their right to identity, family, their right to unite with their family as well as violated their rights to education, access to information, right to rest, leisure, play, recreation and participation in cultural life and arts as well as the right to thought, conscience and religion, right to health, and the right to liberty and security. The cumulative effects of these multiple violations also give rise to very serious concerns that the rights of these children to be free from torture and ill-treatment and other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment have been violated.

“The Mission moreover concluded that the practice of the forcible transfer and/or deportation of Ukrainian children to the temporarily occupied territories and to the territory of the Russian Federation may amount to a crime against humanity of ‘deportation or forcible transfer of population’,” reads the report.

The document contains a recommendation to the Russian Federation to “immediately cease the practices of forcible transfer or deportation of children from Ukraine to the temporarily occupied territories and the Russian Federation”; to provide comprehensive lists of the names and whereabouts of children; impose a moratorium on any further adoptions of children; establish appropriate procedures for and actively assist family reunifications of all children who have been forcibly transferred or deported from Ukraine to the temporarily occupied territories and the Russian Federation.

The report was prepared by the OSCE Moscow Mechanism experts Prof. Veronika Bílková (Czech Republic), Dr. Cecilie Hellestveit (Norway) and Dr. Elīna Šteinerte (Latvia) who have extensive experience in the field of international humanitarian law and human rights.