Interactive Dialogue with Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine

Statement by Ambassador Michèle Taylor

Human Rights Council – 52nd Session

Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Commissioners, for your briefing and report carefully detailing the breathtaking extent of Russia’s war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine.

Today, the United States again condemns these abuses and calls for accountability. The world is calling for accountability.

Among the abhorrent war crimes committed by members of Russia’s forces is the unlawful transfer and deportation of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, including children. This is a grave and flagrant breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The Commission’s reporting is consistent with documentation from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab and other sources that Russia is systematically separating thousands of Ukraine’s children from their families; some of these children have been unable to contact their parents and some have been adopted by Russian citizens through expedited procedures in an effort encouraged by Russian authorities to make the separation permanent.

The Human Rights Council took bold action last March to create this Commission of Inquiry, which is providing critical reporting. The HRC must act resolutely again in the coming weeks to renew the mandate of the Commission.

How does the Commission recommend the international community respond to Russia’s forcible transfer and deportation of Ukraine’s children?

I thank you.

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