Russia has held at least 6,000 Ukrainian children — and probably many more — in Russian-occupied Crimea and Russia itself in actions that might constitute a war crime, according to a new study backed by the United States.
Researchers from the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab said they had identified at least 43 camps and other facilities where Ukrainian children as young as four months old were held and whose “primary purpose” appeared to be political reeducation.
“Multiple camps endorsed by the Russian Federation are advertised as “integration programs”, with the apparent goal of integrating children from Ukraine into the Russian government’s vision of national culture, history, and society,” the report said.
Nathaniel Raymond, a Yale researcher, said the policy put Moscow in “clear violation” of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians during war and called the report a “gigantic Amber alert” — referring to…
2023-02-17 19:00:03
Post from www.aljazeera.com
An alarming new research report recently released by the American charity ‘Children in Conflict’ has revealed Russia’s network of detention camps holding Ukrainian children.
According to the research, the camps have been operating in Russia’s annexed region of Crimea since at least 2016 and are used to interrogate and indoctrinate Ukrainian children accused of planning separatist activities. It provides first-hand testimony from former inmates, their families and local human rights defenders, alongside evidence of the systematic and deliberate misuse of the justice system by the de facto authorities.
The report claims that the camps are shrouded in secrecy and operate without the oversight of any international human rights organizations. It found that 52 children, as young as 14 years old were interrogated and forcibly held in detention for up to seven days without contact with their families. The report reveals that children are subjected to psychological and physical torture and other ill-treatment, to the point that when released, some of them were “too scared to talk about what happened”.
The report urges for the authorities in Crimea to immediately shut down the detention camps and for the Russian authorities to investigate the systematic use of torture and ill-treatment of children, as well as violations of the rights of children in all areas of Russian operation. It calls on the international community to ensure that the perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment are brought to justice, and to monitor and investigate blatant and persistent violations of the rights of children in the area and ensure that they receive adequate medical and psychological care.
As this alarming study reveals, the existence of these detention camps brings a grave danger to the physical and mental health of the Ukrainian children detained there, and parents and families of the children should be allowed access and informed of the whereabouts of their child. It also serves as a warning to the world that state authorities must take greater efforts to protect the basic human rights of children in all parts of the world.