On Thursday, April 27, in Strasbourg, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognized the deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russian-controlled territories as genocide.
Specifically, they adopted the resolution Deportations and forcible transfers of Ukrainian children and other civilians to the Russian Federation or to the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine: creating conditions for safe return, stopping these crimes and punishing those responsible.
“The Assembly emphasizes that the forcible transfer of children from one group to another with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group is considered the crime of genocide in accordance with paragraph (e) of article 2 of the 1948 Genocide Convention, consistent with documented evidence of deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation or to territories temporarily under Russian occupation”,- the resolution says.
In addition, PACE called on the International Criminal Court to consider the possibility of criminal prosecution for this crime.
Recall that since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the CTRC has been monitoring and collecting information about children from the newly occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and systematically communicates with investigators of the International Criminal Court.
We are very glad that our work contributed to the adoption of this decision!