The Council proposes to introduce a separate article in the Criminal Code for war crimes against children

This was stated by the Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Olena Kondratyuk, who oversees the parliamentary track in the Bring Kids Back UA presidential initiative to return illegally deported Ukrainian children home, reports Ukrinform with reference to the press service of the parliament.

“The draft law No. 12170 has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada, which provides for the addition of a separate article to the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which will qualify the illegal transfer and delay of repatriation of Ukrainian children as war crimes,” she said.

According to the Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada, it is primarily about the crime of illegal displacement and the crime of unjustified delay in the repatriation of stolen, displaced or deported Ukrainian children. The draft law proposes to single out such crimes in a separate Article 448 of the Criminal Code.

“We specifically single out war crimes against children in a separate article. The crimes of deportation, forced transfer and unjustified delay in the repatriation of children during war are the most cynical crimes that have the character of genocide, and this is emphasized by many countries that have joined the international coalition on the return of children It’s about our future,” Kondratiuk said.

She recalled that, in accordance with Article 49 of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of the Civilian Population in Time of War, deportation and forced displacement of the civilian population are serious violations of international humanitarian law that reach the threshold of war crimes. Also, in accordance with the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions and the assessment of the UN Independent International Commission to Investigate Violations in Ukraine, unjustified delay of repatriation is a war crime.

According to official data, almost 20,000 children were deported, illegally or forcibly removed from Ukraine during the full-scale invasion. And their return is very slow.

Kondratyuk emphasized that according to the investigations carried out by human rights defenders, citizens of the Russian Federation, who participate in the adoption of deported or kidnapped Ukrainian children, aim to destroy the national identity of young Ukrainians.

“Such crimes must be punished. Punishing the guilty is one of the most important means currently at Ukraine’s disposal to prevent the recurrence of such crimes,” said the Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada. She called on everyone who is related to the investigation of crimes against children to support such changes to the Criminal Procedure Code and to promote the adoption of this law in the Verkhovna Rada as quickly as possible.

Olena Kondratyuk is a co-author of this draft law together with the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk, his first deputy Oleksandr Kornienko and the President’s representative in the parliament Halyna Mykhailiuk.

As reported, the court sentenced in absentia a collaborator involved in taking children to the Russian Federation from Luhansk region to 10 years of imprisonment.