OSCE States invoked the Moscow Mechanism in response to the militarization and indoctrination of Ukrainian children by Russia
On 14 May, at the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), 41 participating States, including Lithuania, invoked the Moscow Mechanism to investigate and assess Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian children, following consultations with Ukraine.
„We are profoundly alarmed by credible and mounting reports that the Russian Federation is systematically subjecting Ukrainian children – especially those staying in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and those forcibly transferred to such territories or unlawfully deported to Russia – to militarization, indoctrination, coercion, and other repressive practices aimed at, inter alia, erasing Ukrainian identity and compelling loyalty to the occupying power“, reads the statement of the States invoking the Moscow Mechanism.
The Mechanism aims for independent experts to establish the facts and circumstances surrounding possible contraventions of OSCE commitments and violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law related to militarization, indoctrination, and other repressive practices against Ukrainian children by Russia. It also seeks to assess the scale of these practices and their impact on children’s rights.
This is the sixth time the Moscow Mechanism has been triggered in response to alleged Russian crimes since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The following participating States joined the initiative in support of Ukraine: all European Union Member States, including Lithuania, as well as Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, San Marino, and the United Kingdom.
