Ukraine – Invocation of the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism in response to the abduction of Ukrainian children

With Russia continuing to abduct and deport Ukrainian children to facilitate their adoption by Russian families, leading to the indoctrination and militarization of these children, France and its European partners are stepping up their efforts to denounce and combat this practice. The invocation of the Moscow Mechanism is aimed at gathering and analyzing information on the coercion, intimidation, repression, unlawful deprivation of liberty, illegal adoption and mistreatment of Ukrainian children, as well as other forms of violence imposed on them by Russia.

For more than four years, Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine in violation of international law, the OSCE’s founding principles, and its international commitments with respect to human rights. Russia’s serious, widespread, systematic violations of international humanitarian law and human rights have already been established in several reports, in particular those of the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine.

Confronted with these outrageous actions, France solemnly reaffirms its determination to combat impunity. The invocation of this mechanism will enable an independent mission of experts to gather evidence and to document and report the facts.

France stresses that OSCE participating States have undertaken a commitment to abide by international humanitarian law, especially as it relates to the protection of children.

France will continue to stand with the people of Ukraine and to lend its support to the essential efforts of international justice to ensure that those responsible for all the crimes committed in Ukraine are held accountable.