An additional submission ‘Situation with rights of children in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol City in the context of peninsula occupation by the Russian Federation’ was made public by the Crimean Human Rights Group during the press conference in Kyiv on November 25.
The report has prepared to be sent to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. It presents major trends and violations of the UNCRC recorded by the Crimean Human Rights Group for the period of Crimea occupation (starting from 2014).
The information presented in the report was sent to the International Criminal Court in September 2020 as part of the “Responsibility of Russian officials for forcing the population of Crimea to serve in the Russian armed forces (in the context of state policy of promotion of military service among children)” sub- mission prepared by the Crimean Human Rights Group and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol City.
The submission includes Recommendations to the Russian Federation to respect the rights of children as provide by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
The Russian Federation as occupying power that has extended its jurisdiction over the occupied territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol, being a State Party of the Convention on the Rights of Child, and violating its international legal commitments under UN CRC articles 6, 8, 17, and 38, shall:
- Take measures to counter the COVID-19 pandemic in the occupied Crimea, in particular, not to hold events, including those of militaristic nature, provoking mass gathering of people, during the pandemic.
- Stop imposing automatically a Russian citizenship on the population of Crimea as well as deporting those who rejected this citizenship, and hold off the regressive consequences of this decision for exercising the human rights by such people.
- Stop blocking radio stations broadcasting from territory controlled by the government of Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian websites, unless such blocking is done in order to comply with other provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- Cancel restrictions on leaving the territory of the occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol for students of higher educational establishments and other categories studying in the educational establishments on the territories controlled by the government of Ukraine.
- implement the ICJ judgement of 19 April 2017 on provisional measures under the case of ‘Application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination’ (Ukraine against Russia’) and provide the children in the territory of the occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol with the access to the Ukrainian language based education.
- Stop using the hate speech by the occupation authorities of the Russian Federation in Crimea in relation to civilians, including children of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar nationality as well as Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
- Stop the propaganda of serving voluntarily in the armed forces of the Russian Federation among children, both by holding propaganda mass events and by creating educational institutions and training courses within the framework of general education schools that provide the elementary military training for children and set preparing children for service in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation as one of the primary tasks.
For the full text of the report, please follow the link.
The submission has been prepared with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation within the framework of the project ‘Children in Armed Conflict and Russian Militarization Context’. The submission reflects the position of the authors and does not necessarily coincide with the position of the International Renaissance Foundation.
