9. The Assembly will remain seized on this issue with a view to a future debate, which should allow for the building of new alliances to meet the needs of internally displaced children and of their families.

10. The Assembly will strengthen parliamentary co-operation by setting up an ad hoc Committee to allow parliamentarians with diverse political backgrounds and professional expertise to contribute to improving the situation of children of Ukraine, wherever they may be: children who are in Ukraine, those who are internally displaced and those who have found temporary protection in Europe, as well as children who are currently missing or have been deported or forcibly displaced to the Russian Federation and Belarus.

11. The Assembly welcomes Ukraine's efforts to return deported or forcibly transferred children, including the implementation of the “Bring Kids Back UA” action plan and the formation of the International Coalition of Countries for the Return of Ukrainian Children under President Zelenskyy's Peace Formula.

12. The Assembly recognises Ukraine's commitment to protecting vulnerable children, including by establishing the Child Rights Protection Centre, which operates under the supervision of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights and addresses issues related to documenting crimes against children subjected to forcible transfer and deportation, assesses the needs of children, places them in family-based care, if necessary, and undertakes other actions aimed at their reintegration.

13. The Assembly emphasises that Ukrainian children leave Ukraine because of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. Thus, Ukraine does not create dangerous living conditions for children. They are only to be subjected to temporary protection in the territories of foreign states. Therefore, the provisions of Article 6 of the Hague Convention of 19 October 1996 on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children are not applicable to Ukrainian children. Meanwhile the application of Article 5 of the same convention is appropriate. Guided by Article 5 of the Convention, judicial or administrative bodies of Ukraine have the jurisdiction to take measures aimed at protecting the child’s person or property.

14. The Assembly is particularly concerned about the fate of children forcibly transferred and deported to the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, the Russian Federation, and Belarus. These practices constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity and, as noted by the Assembly in its Resolution 2482 (2023) “Legal and human rights aspects of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine”, possible genocide, since acts “such as killings and forcible transfer of children of one group to another group for Russification purposes through adoption by Russian families and/or transfer to Russian-run orphanages or residential facilities like summer camps” could fall under Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

15. The Assembly deplores and condemns the deportations and forcible transfers of Ukrainian children, practices which are fundamentally contrary to international law, in particular Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and the Additional Protocol relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, to which the Russian Federation and Ukraine are signatories.

16. The Assembly underlines the significance of the decision of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants against the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, and the Commissioner for Children's Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, in connection with the alleged war crimes of unlawful deportation and forcible transfer of children from temporarily controlled or occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, and calls on the Council of Europe member States to further support the Court's efforts in ensuring the inevitability of liability for the Russian Federation for war crimes committed against Ukrainian children.

17. As of today, the “Children of War” platform run by the Ukrainian Government states that it has collected information on more than 19 546 children which have been signalled as having been deported, or forcibly transferred from various locations, and only 388 of whom have returned home.

18. The Assembly notes that the longer time passes, the more the chances of finding these children diminish, potentially leading to the irreversibility of their situation. It emphasises the particular vulnerability of orphans who have no support or legal representation. The dramatic consequences on the mental and physical health and well-being of children are crystallising. The citizenship and name of these children have sometimes been changed by Russian authorities. Some have been adopted illegally. Many are untraceable and have no means of contact with their country or their family. All have been subjected to some form of indoctrination, and a new culture and a new language have been imposed on them. Children have experienced psychological and/or physical aggression. These acts constitute violations of their rights to preserve their identity, including nationality, name, and family relations, to express their views freely, as well as the right to education and to enjoy their own culture as guaranteed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

II SÉRIE-D — NÚMERO 19 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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