Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunya Mijatović stated the need for urgent action to reunite Ukrainian children taken to Russia from the occupied territories of Ukraine with their families.
“Ukrainian children are among the most vulnerable and helpless victims of the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine. It is necessary to act immediately,” Mijatović emphasized, summarizing the results of her trip to Ukraine.
According to the human rights activist, it is very difficult to establish reliable figures – exactly how many children were taken to Russia – especially in the case when these are children who were unaccompanied by adults, or those who were in orphanages or other care institutions. There are several projects involved in the search for children, for example, the Children of War website, but it is not yet possible to identify all the missing ones.
“This is an issue of the highest priority, and it must be addressed jointly by all interested international organizations, using all available expertise. All parties must be given unrestricted access to records and information about all Ukrainian children taken to Russia and Russian-occupied territories, ensure their identification and search for relatives in full compliance with the rules for protecting personal data,” Dunya Mijatovic is convinced.
She also calls on the international community to support and cooperate with credible organizations and networks of Ukrainian and Russian human rights defenders.
In January, Ukraine's presidential commissioner for children's rights, Daria Gerasimchuk, reported that during the war, about 14,000 Ukrainian children were taken to Russia, and only 125 of them were returned to their homeland. In total, 464 children died during the Russian aggression. A recent new package of EU sanctions placed restrictions on those involved in kidnapping Ukrainian children and taking them to Russia.
Earlier, the Conflict Observatory project concluded that Russia has a network of institutions that “re-educate” Ukrainian children abducted during the war. Most of them were created on the basis of holiday camps. In total, at least six thousand children went through such camps.