Independent OSCE Moscow Mechanism experts: the practice of the forcible transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation may amount to a crime against humanity
On 4 May 2023, the Report under the Moscow Mechanism 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 presented at the Permanent Council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Lithuania’s Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna, Ambassador Vaidotas Verba in his statement at the Permanent Council of OSCE stressed that “the Russian authorities not only forcibly remove Ukrainian children from their homes and families. They also violate their fundamental rights to security and family life by actively erasing their Ukrainian identity and inflicting inconceivable emotional and psychological trauma.”
Ambassador expressed Lithuania’s full support to the Mission’s conclusion that the Russian authorities’ practice of forcible transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children to the temporarily occupied territories and to the territory of the Russian Federation may amount to a crime against humanity. He also voiced Lithuania’s strong determination to make all efforts that children are returned home, and Russia held accountable for all atrocities committed in Ukraine.
The Report, drafted by three independent experts, Prof. Veronika Bilkova, Dr. Cecilie Hellestveit and Dr. Elīna Šteinerte, presented various aspects of the forced transfer and displacement that children in the territories of Ukraine occupied by the Russian armed forces are exposed to. It also detailed numerous violations of the rights of the children deported to the Russian Federation.
One of the OSCE Human dimension instruments – the Moscow Mechanism - was invoked at the initiative of 45 OSCE participating States, including Lithuania, and in consultation with Ukraine, for the third time in order to assess war crimes and crimes against humanity committed after Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Report under the Moscow Mechanism can be found here.
