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having regard to its previous resolutions on Ukraine and Russia, in particular its resolutions of 7 April (1), 5 May (2) and 19 May (3) 2022,

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having regard to the UN Charter,

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having regard to the European Convention on Human Rights,

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having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,

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having regard to the Hague Conventions,

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having regard to the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols,

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having regard to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC),

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having regard to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance,

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having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 20 November 1989 and the additional protocols thereto,

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having regard to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,

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having regard to the European Council conclusions on Ukraine of 30 May 2022,

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having regard to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) reports on violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine of 13 April 2022 and of 14 July 2022,

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having regard to the reports by the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights,

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having regard to the discussion in the UN Security Council on 7 September 2022 on the forced displacement and deportation of Ukrainian citizens, as well as forced adoptions of Ukrainian children in Russia,

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having regard to Human Rights Watch’s report ‘“We Had No Choice”: “Filtration” and the Crime of Forcibly Transferring Ukrainian Civilians to Russia’ of 1 September 2022,

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having regard to Rules 144(5) and 132(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.

whereas the Russian Federation relaunched an unprovoked, unjustified and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine on 24 February 2022; whereas Russia has committed massive and grave violations of human rights and war crimes from the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including mass killings of civilians and prisoners of war, torture, sexual violence, forced disappearances, forced deportation, pillage and the hindering of evacuation and humanitarian convoys, all of which are prohibited under international law and must be prosecuted;

B.

whereas the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) estimates that since 24 February 2022 more than 1 million Ukrainians have been forcibly deported to the Russian Federation, often as far as to the far east of Russia; whereas different sources indicate that these numbers are an underestimate, with the highest estimates putting the numbers at 2,5 million, and that the numbers are constantly increasing; whereas forced deportations from Ukraine, facilitated by the so-called ‘filtration camps’, show strong historical parallels to forced mass Soviet deportations and Gulag concentration camps; whereas a forcible transfer is a war crime and a potential crime against humanity;

C.

whereas the large-scale forced deportation of Ukrainian civilians to the Russian Federation has been identified by international organisations such as the OSCE and the UN as one of the most serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by the Russian Federation in its war of aggression against Ukraine;

D.

whereas the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations (OHCHR) verified the existence of so-called ‘filtration’, involving large-scale, compulsory, punitive, and abusive security screening that has resulted in numerous human rights violations against Ukrainian citizens; whereas Ukrainian civilians were effectively interned as they waited to undergo this process, which varied in duration from a few hours to almost a month; whereas during ‘filtration’, Ukrainian citizens are subjected to detailed interrogation, body searches, sometimes involving forced nudity, and torture; whereas in such circumstances, Ukrainian women and girls are at risk of sexual exploitation;

E.

whereas the ‘filtration’ process is systematic and represents a mass illegal data collection exercise, providing the Russian authorities with vast amounts of personal data about Ukrainian civilians, including their biometric data; whereas this is a clear violation of the right to privacy and could put those subjected to it at risk of being targeted in the future;

F.

whereas during this process, the Russian authorities often confiscate Ukrainian passports and coerce Ukrainians into signing agreements to stay in Russia, hindering their ability to return home, in an apparent effort to change the demographic make-up of Ukraine; whereas, in addition to forced deportations and adoptions, Russia in its geopolitical concept of ‘Russkij mir’ (‘Russian world’) in the occupied territories of Ukraine is conducting accelerated Russification;

G.

whereas Ukrainian citizens who ‘fail’ the ‘filtration’ process are detained and transferred to Russian detention centres and penal colonies, and are at risk of grave harm, including torture and ill treatment, or are forcibly disappeared; whereas the OHCHR has documented credible reports of children being separated from their families when the accompanying adult did not pass the ‘filtration’ process;

H.

whereas children fleeing the war, especially when unaccompanied, are at increased risk of violence, abuse and exploitation, as well as of going missing and falling victim to trafficking, especially when moving across borders, and girls in particular are at risk of gender-based violence;

I.

whereas the Ukrainian Ombudsman, on 3 September 2022, claimed that more than 200 000 children had already been forcibly taken to the Russian Federation with the intention of making them available for adoption by Russian families and could verify the circumstances of the forced deportation of 7 000 Ukrainian children; whereas the Russian authorities are deliberately separating Ukrainian children from their parents and abducting others from orphanages, other children’s institutions and hospitals before putting them up for adoption inside Russia; whereas this action by the Russian Federation is systematic and large-scale in nature, and includes the eradication of the deportees’ personal records, among other offences;

J.

whereas Ukraine has created the ‘Children of War’ portal to allow the parents of lost, displaced and deported children to share all available data;

K.

whereas once children are in the Russian-occupied territories or in Russia itself, the process of leaving or reuniting with their guardians is incredibly complex; whereas without formal procedures in place to return Ukrainian children to Ukraine or to reunite them with their guardians and caregivers, the process largely falls on individuals with support from local volunteers, NGOs and back-channel negotiations;

L.

whereas on 25 and 30 May 2022, President Vladimir Putin signed decrees simplifying the procedure for granting Russian citizenship to Ukrainian citizens, including children without parental care, and for Ukrainian children’s adoption by Russian families, thereby further complicating their return to Ukraine and facilitating the process of enforced assimilation of Ukrainian children; whereas hundreds of Ukrainian children have since received Russian citizenship and have been sent to new parents across the different regions of Russia;

M.

whereas international law unequivocally prohibits deportation within an occupied territory or from an occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power, which constitutes a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime under the Rome Statute of the ICC; whereas international law and practice prohibit adoption during or immediately after emergencies; whereas Ukraine adopted a moratorium on inter-country adoptions early in the war; whereas the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibit occupying powers from changing children’s personal status, including their nationality;

N.

whereas according to Article II of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the forcible transfer of children of the group to another group, with the intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, constitutes genocide;

O.

whereas elderly people, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups appear to be at particular risk of becoming trapped in the Russian-occupied areas or in Russia, as they are often placed against their will in facilities such as nursing homes located in Russia or the Russian-occupied areas; whereas these facilities are closed institutions, and placing vulnerable people there fundamentally undermines their right to freedom of movement;

P.

whereas Ukrainian citizens in Russia and the Russian-occupied territories face significant difficulties, such as a lack of the means of subsistence, the inability to exchange Ukrainian hryvnias or withdraw funds using bank cards, a lack of clothing and hygiene items, and the inability to contact relatives; whereas Ukrainian civilians are being forcibly relocated to economically depressed or isolated areas in Russia, often in Siberia, and left with no means of returning; whereas those who try to leave Russia often face difficulties crossing from Russia because they lack proper identification documents, having left them behind in Ukraine when fleeing the war or having had them confiscated by the Russian authorities;

Q.

whereas a distorted narrative of World War II lies at the root of the Kremlin’s propaganda justifying the war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine today;

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