PACE recognizes deportation of Ukrainian children as genocide
Voting in PACE for a resolution on the deportation of Ukrainian children by the Russian occupiers, April 27, 2023 (Photo:Yevheniya Kravchuk / Facebook)
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) passed a resolution on Thursday, April 27, recognizing the
forced displacement of Ukrainian
children to Russia as genocide. According to one Ukrainian PACE delegate, Yevheniya
Kravchuk, the resolution passed with 87 votes in favor.
Another delegate, Oleksiy Honcharenko, noted in his Telegram channel that the word "genocide" regarding Russia's actions in Ukraine was mentioned for the first time in an official document at this level.
Kravchuk clarified that the resolution asserts that forcibly relocating Ukrainian children to Russia is in breach of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. Additionally, the document welcomes international efforts to hold Russian leadership and perpetrators accountable for the crimes of genocide committed against the Ukrainian people.
The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Maria Mezentseva, added on Facebook that the PACE calls on member countries to help Ukraine create a mechanism for identifying and repatriating those who were deported back to Ukraine or a safe third country.
Honcharenko also wrote that the resolution was amended to say that Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko shares responsibility for deporting Ukrainians from their own country.
As of April 2023, 19,384 children were considered to have been deported from Ukraine. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on March 17 for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Russia’s children’s ombudsman, Maria Lvova-Belova, for their involvement in unlawful removal of children from Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022.
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