Cross-pollinated: Russia’s Systemic Policy of Destroying Children’s Ukrainian Identity
Source: Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights
The large-scale armed aggression against Ukraine, which is now in its third year, has a significant impact on the entire population of Ukraine. However, children, due to their age and dependence on adults or the state, are in a particularly vulnerable position, which imposes additional obligations on both Ukraine and the aggressor state to ensure children’s rights, guarantee their safety, family unity, prevent their involvement in the armed conflict and protect them from changing their identity. In addition to the general rights of a child, special protection is envisaged for children in armed conflict – special respect and protection from any kind of indecent assault. Parties to the conflict must also provide the protection and assistance that children need in view of their age or for any other reason. Special rules also apply to the evacuation of children (including the identification of a single ground for moving children outside the occupied territory to a foreign country – urgent reasons related to the health or treatment of children), care for them, taking into account their religion, cultural traditions, language and nationality, identification of children and registration of their family ties, etc.
The occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine, which began in 2014 with the seizure of the Crimean Peninsula by the Russian army, continued with the occupation of some areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and in 2022 with the occupation of a number of regions of Ukraine, some of which are still occupied. As of the beginning of February 2024, about 26% of the territory of Ukraine within the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions, as well as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, is considered occupied. Ukrainian citizens, including children, continue to live in this territory temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. According to human rights activists, about 1.6 million Ukrainian children continue to be in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine (TOT), which poses significant risks to them. The exact number of children is currently unknown due to the lack of access to the territories and low confidence in Russian statistics on the situation in the TOT of Ukraine.
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The large-scale armed aggression against Ukraine, which is now in its third year, has a significant impact on the entire population of Ukraine. However, children, due to their age and dependence on adults or the state, are in a particularly vulnerable position, which imposes additional obligations on both Ukraine and the aggressor state to ensure children’s rights, guarantee their safety, family unity, prevent their involvement in the armed conflict and protect them from changing their identity. In addition to the general rights of a child, special protection is envisaged for children in armed conflict – special respect and protection from any kind of indecent assault. Parties to the conflict must also provide the protection and assistance that children need in view of their age or for any other reason. Special rules also apply to the evacuation of children (including the identification of a single ground for moving children outside the occupied territory to a foreign country – urgent reasons related to the health or treatment of children), care for them, taking into account their religion, cultural traditions, language and nationality, identification of children and registration of their family ties, etc.
The occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine, which began in 2014 with the seizure of the Crimean Peninsula by the Russian army, continued with the occupation of some areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and in 2022 with the occupation of a number of regions of Ukraine, some of which are still occupied. As of the beginning of February 2024, about 26% of the territory of Ukraine within the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions, as well as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, is considered occupied. Ukrainian citizens, including children, continue to live in this territory temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. According to human rights activists, about 1.6 million Ukrainian children continue to be in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine (TOT), which poses significant risks to them. The exact number of children is currently unknown due to the lack of access to the territories and low confidence in Russian statistics on the situation in the TOT of Ukraine.
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