Kyiv, 13 January 2023
Adviser – Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights and Rehabilitation Daria Herasymchuk held a series of international working meetings on the protection of the rights of Ukrainian children violated by the aggressor country.
Particularly, the President had a meeting with Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Assistance Luise Amtsberg and representatives of the German Embassy in Ukraine.
Daria Herasymchuk also met with Adviser to the Embassy of the Netherlands in Ukraine and Deputy Head of Mission Esselien van Eerten.
The Adviser – Commissioner of the President informed the interlocutors about the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children by Russia and the refusal of the Russian Federation to share with Ukraine the information on their further fate and whereabouts.
In this context, Daria Herasymchuk spoke about the work of the platform “Children of War” and announced the number of recorded victims among children (killed, wounded, deported).
She proposed to support the UN General Assembly’s call to the Russian Federation to stop deportation of Ukrainian children and to cancel the decision to simplify the procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship for Ukrainian orphans or children deprived of parental care, as well as to take all necessary measures for their safe return and reunification with relatives.
Daria Herasymchuk urged to make Russia face the question about these children at a high diplomatic level.
She also called to recognize the actions of the Russian Federation as genocide of the Ukrainian people and to spread this information among the EU partner countries.
In addition, the Adviser – Commissioner of the President emphasized the inadmissibility of the actions of the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova who illegally adopted a Ukrainian boy from Donbas and publicly admitted this fact.
Daria Herasymchuk expressed disappointment due to the ineffective cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross in the issue of rescuing children illegally taken from the territory of Ukraine. She noted that the ICRC does not want to accept information from the Ukrainian state authorities, explaining that they can receive such data in the format of relevant statements only from parents and close relatives. But at the same time it is mostly impossible, because often parents and children are forcibly separated during displacement, relatives disappear or they are killed. In such cases, it is the state that must ensure the rights of children.
Daria Herasymchuk asked for assistance in finding possible ways and solutions to organize and implement measures to establish the whereabouts of Ukrainian children who were illegally deported from Ukraine to Russia. In particular, the involvement of third countries could help in this, especially given the fact that with the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine broke off diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation.
“Only by joint efforts, using various channels and opportunities, will we be able to save Ukrainian children from the invaders,” the Adviser – Commissioner of the President emphasized.
Source – President of Ukraine