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On April 27, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognized the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to the territory of russia as genocide. The resolution was supported by 87 deputies out of 89 present, one was against, and one abstained. PACE also called on the International Criminal Court to consider the possibility of criminal prosecution for such crimes.
"Russian citizenship is often imposed on those children forcibly removed by russia, which is also considered a violation of the children's right to identity. This also facilitates the illegal adoption of Ukrainian children by russian families. Such practices are prohibited by international humanitarian law, human rights, and criminal law. Actions such as war crimes and crimes against humanity must be prosecuted. The forcible displacement of children is a crime of genocide that must be thoroughly investigated in court," the resolution states.
Andriy Chernousov, the chief lawyer of the Voices of Children Foundation, explained the consequences of the resolution for Ukrainian children forcibly deported to russia.
"Yesterday's vote on the resolution provides additional opportunities to bring russian war criminals to justice for the crimes committed in Ukraine. This is the first political decision of such a high level.
The decision is purely political in nature, as there are no immediate legal consequences. But for international judicial bodies and, I think, for the International Criminal Court, which recently issued warrants for the arrest of putin and maria lvova-belova (russia's commissioner for children's rights), we can say that this is additional confirmation of these facts.
The uniqueness of this decision is that PACE comes to the fact of genocide through the fact of deportation. About a month ago, the UN Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes in Ukraine arrived with the conclusions that there is currently no evidence of the commission of the crime of genocide against the Ukrainian people. Instead, the PACE decision already indicates to them that there are signs of genocide.
It is important that our Foundation and other public organizations constantly collect, represent and advocate the issue of abduction and deportation of children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to russia.
We, as Ukrainian human rights defenders, welcome this decision. It makes bringing russian war criminals to justice closer and more evident. But it is too early to relax, because the court will, of course, take into account various political decisions. And only such decisions as the PACE resolution will not be enough."
Currently, according to the official data of the National Information Bureau, 19,393 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to russia.
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