United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General for Human Rights Ilze Brands Kehris said there were ‘credible’ allegations of Ukrainian children being forcibly taken to Russia and expressed concern that they would be adopted by Russian families.
“There are credible allegations of forcible transfer of unaccompanied minors to Russian-occupied territory or Russia,” Kehris told a session of the UN Security Council (UNSC) yesterday, AFP reported.
Kehris expressed concern about the adoption of a simplified procedure for granting Russian citizenship to children who are not under the guardianship of their parents and for their adoption by Russian families.
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Referring to Russia’s filtering operations, Kehris continued:
“According to cases documented by our office, Russian armed forces and associated armed groups subjected individuals to body searches, sometimes forcibly stripping them naked, and detailed interrogations about their personal background, family ties, political views and affiliations. We are particularly concerned that women and girls are at risk of sexual abuse during screening procedures.”
On the other hand, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, rejected all accusations, calling them ‘baseless’.
Nebenzia emphasized that Ukrainians traveling to Russia are subject to ‘registration procedures, not screening’ similar to those in Poland or other European Union (EU) countries hosting Ukrainian refugees.
“We prefer to talk about real problems rather than fake ones. Having wasted time today on the latest speculations, tomorrow we propose to talk about real threats to peace and the supply of weapons to Ukraine by foreign states,” the Russian Ambassador said.
Source of the news: New York/Sharq al-Awsat
