GENEVA — The United Nations Human Rights Council demanded Tuesday that Russia present entry to and details about Ukrainian kids and different civilians forcibly transferred to territory below its management.
The prime UN rights physique handed a decision demanding that Moscow “cease the unlawful forced transfer and deportation of civilians and other protected persons within Ukraine or to the Russian Federation.”
The textual content, which handed with 28 of the 47 council members voting in favor, 17 abstaining and solely China and Eritrea opposed, highlighted particularly the switch of “children, including those from institutional care, unaccompanied children and separated children.”
The Kremlin’s alleged deportation of tens of 1000’s of kids from war-ravaged Ukraine to Russia or areas occupied by Russia has been a hot-button matter all through the practically six-week session of the Geneva-based council.
Kyiv maintains that greater than 16,000 Ukrainian kids have been deported to Russia as of February this yr.
Tuesday’s decision, which additionally extended for one more yr a high-level investigation into violations dedicated within the context of Russia’s battle in Ukraine, demanded that Russia present entry to all these transferred.
It stated Moscow ought to grant “staff of established international human rights and humanitarian mechanisms unhindered, immediate, sustained and safe access” to these transferred.
And it known as for “reliable and comprehensive information about the number and the whereabouts of these civilians, and ensure their dignified treatment and their safe return.”
The textual content additionally known as for “unhindered, immediate and sustained access” to be granted to all prisoners of battle and anybody “unlawfully detained.”
The high-level Commission of Inquiry, established by the council a yr in the past to research abuses since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 202, concluded in its first report final month that the compelled transfers of Ukrainian kids amounted to a battle crime.
The investigators, who with Tuesday’s vote have been given one other yr to push forward with their probe, stated in addition they had been probing allegations these transfers might quantity to genocide.
And they highlighted quite a few different Russian violations in Ukraine that they stated amounted to battle crimes, together with killings, torture and rape, whereas they warned systematic assaults on Ukraine’s power infrastructure and a sample of widespread and systematic torture might quantity to crimes towards humanity.
A day after the COI revealed its report, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the battle crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian kids. — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
