“Based on new evidence, the Commission has concluded that the Russian authorities committed two types of crimes against humanity: the deportation and forcible transfer of children, as well as their enforced disappearance,” said commission president Erik Møse.
8 out of 10 children do not return
Commissioner Pablo de Greiff told reporters that Russian authorities had claimed the relocations were humanitarian evacuations for security reasons, “but the Commission found that four years later, 80 percent of the children in the documented cases have not been returned,” de Greiff said.
He stressed that this contravenes international humanitarian law, according to which evacuations can only be temporary for compelling reasons of health, medical treatment or security.
The Commission’s report says that Many parents and legal guardians are unaware of the fate of their children. and whereabouts.
Instead of establishing mechanisms to facilitate their return, Russian authorities “arranged for the long-term placement of children in families or institutions in 21 regions of the Russian Federation and in occupied areas of Ukraine,” Mr. de Greiff said, following a “carefully organized plan” and “in accordance with a policy conceived and implemented under the leadership at the highest level of the state apparatus of the Russian Federation.”
In March 2023, the UN-backed International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in connection with alleged war crimes related to the deportation and “illegal transfer” of children from occupied Ukraine.
When asked about engagement with the Russian authorities on this matter, Mr. de Greiff stressed that the Commission had submitted to them “39 written requests for information on different topics, including the issue of children… and we have never received a response.”
Neglected and hungry
It also highlighted evidence from some of the 20 percent of children who returned, pointing to various types of mistreatment, including children not receiving enough medical care or food.
In one case, the family containing a teenager was “willing to call the police…because this teenager expressed a desire to return to Ukraine and his family.”
Another case ended with the suicide of a young teenager, he said.
Army desertions and false promises
Regarding the treatment of troops within the Russian military, Commissioner Vrinda Grover said investigators interviewed 85 soldiers who had defected and that “most of them testified about extreme violence and coercion arbitrarily ordered or practiced by commanders against their own men.”
“The soldiers described being treated like cannon fodder,” Grover said. “They denounced the practice of shooting soldiers, carrying out mock executions, brutally beating them, tying them to trees or (placing them) in pits.”
“Their testimonies speak of a total disregard for life and human dignity,” he concluded.
De Greiff added that the findings point to “treatment that was carried out knowingly, sometimes by order and, indeed, sometimes with the participation of commanders” and not isolated incidents.
The investigation also looked into the issue of foreign nationals recruited to fight with the Russian armed forces and found that the recruits came from 17 countries around the world.
A man inspects damage to an apartment building in Slaviansk, Ukraine.
Ms. Grover said “many were deceived and lured from abroad to the Russian Federation” with the false promise of civilian jobs.
“They forced them to sign contracts written in Russian, which they did not understand, and then sent them to the front,” he said.
In its latest report, the Commission of Inquiry also documented rights violations among those mobilized by the Ukrainian armed forces, from irregular administrative detentions to lack of access to legal representation, as well as cases of violence against conscientious objectors.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine was first established by the Human Rights Council in March 2022 to “investigate all alleged violations and abuses of human rights, violations of international humanitarian law and related crimes in the context of the aggression against Ukraine by the Russian Federation,” following Russia’s large-scale invasion of its neighbor on February 24 of that year. Commissioners are not UN staff nor do they receive remuneration for their work.