Ombudsman: "Abduction by fighters of children and their use as a live shields – that is how the rights of children are observed in the east of Ukraine"
- Details
- 03.10.2014
On 23 September the Ukrainian Ombudsman delivered her speech at the session of the UN Council for Human Rights in Geneva during the discussion concerning strengthening of the international efforts in order to prevent violence against children.
"In the context of the Russian military invasion into east regions of Ukraine, I would like to draw attention to scandalous facts of systematic violations of the rights of the child by the pro-Russian armed groups in a conflict zone: abduction of children, tortures and manhandling them. That said, child care facilities, orphanages, hospitals for children are transformed by the pro-Russian armed groups into their command staffs, and children are used as a live sheilds.
Despite numerous efforts of the Ukrainian authorities to evacuate and rescue orphans, the children deprived of parental guardianship, and the abandoned children, they were blocked according to orders of illegal armed groups on this territory which forbade administration of the establishments to evacuate children to any place outside of these territories other than Russia", – Ms. Valeriya Lutkovska noted in her speech.
She also informed the participants of session of efforts, which were made by Ombudsman's Office in order to return the children from Russia and to deploy them to safe regions of Ukraine.
"In June of this year the armed pro-Russian fighters illegally and without any documents took out 16 Ukrainian children to Russia. Thanks to cooperation of Russian and Ukrainian Ombudsmen and the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine these children were returned and evacuated to safe regions of Ukraine for rehabilitation.
In July of the this year 61 orphans together with 12 social workers were also violently taken out to Russia. And again we managed to rescue these children and to provide them with all necessary medical care and attendance. Also these are only a few facts out of many", – the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights informed.
"In this regard, I would like to remind the Russian authorities and the pro-Russian terrorists that no geopolitical ambitions, any propaganda interests a worth a single tear of the child", – Ms. Valeriya Lutkovska noted, summing up the speech.
This was another visit out of a series of initiatives devoted to informing the international community on the observance of human rights in Ukraine, supported by UNDP.
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