On April 30, 2023, the Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Oleksandr Merezhko, registered motion for a resolution on the “Complicity of the Republic of Belarus in the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children from the occupied by Russian Federation territories of Ukraine”.

This motion for a resolution is registered in order to hold an updated debate in PACE on the issue of the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Belarus.

We now need the signatures of PACE deputies to turn this motion for a resolution into a workable instrument.

Please, if you know a PACE deputy, ask one to sign in support of this motion for a resolution.

The link is here:

https://pace-apps.coe.int/deposits/edit/293?editing=true

Under the Convention on the prevention of genocide of 1948 illegal transfer of children from one social group to another constitutes a crime of genocide. According to the recent accounts of the Belarusian organizations, the authorities of the Republic of Belarus might be involved in the illegal transfer of the Ukrainian children to the territory of Belarus and brainwashing aimed at depriving them of their feeling of Ukrainian identity. Such transfers might be regarded as complicity of the Republic of Belarus in the acts of genocide committed by Russia against Ukrainian nation. In view of this disturbing information the PACE needs to investigate the situation and to give adequate assessment of the reports related to the transfer of the Ukrainian children to the territory of Belarus and complicity of its authorities.

This is what the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian Parliament demands, and the International Center for Civic Initiatives Our House (Belarus) fully supports him in his requirements.

Let’s save Ukrainian children and bring them home together!

Olga Karach