How Russians Violate Children’s Rights in Occupation: Human Rights Watch Report
Illegal adoption, prohibition of the Ukrainian language, deprivation of national identity, violation of the right to education, military training and even preparation for mobilization in the future – this is a far from complete list of rights violations committed by the Russian Federation against Ukrainian children in the occupied territories. Cases of flagrant violations were reported by an international human rights organization Human Rights Watch.
“The Russian occupying forces in Ukraine and the Russian authorities, including the Russian Minister of Education and other high-ranking officials, have taken measures to suppress the Ukrainian language and curriculum, as well as to impose the Russian curriculum and the Russian language as the language of instruction in schools. These measures violate the laws of armed conflict , which prohibit the occupying power from making unnecessary changes to laws in the occupied territory, such as the 2017 Law of Ukraine “On Education”, – the report says.
Ukrainian children in the occupied territories are subjected to Kremlin’s anti-Ukrainian propaganda and are involved in military training as part of the school curriculum. The Russian school curriculum includes history books that try to justify the Russian invasion and portray Ukraine as a “neo-Nazi state”. The Russian Federation also restricts teaching in the Ukrainian language, violating the rights of Ukrainian children to education. The occupying power promotes the development of respect for the Russian cultural identity, language and values, as well as contempt for the national values of Ukraine.
The implementation of Russian education in the Russian language in the occupied territories of Ukraine violates international human rights standards, including the prohibition of war propaganda, the right of children to be taught in their native language, and the right of parents to choose education for their children. According to the UN Office for Human Rights, the Russian authorities require schools in the occupied territories of Ukraine to report the names of pupils and students who have reached the age of 18 and are considered suitable for conscription into the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
Criticism of the Russian invasion in schools is punished by the occupation authorities. For example, in Melitopol, Russian wards punished a student for speaking in Ukrainian, took him away with a bag on his head dozens of kilometers from the city and left him to return home on his own.
The occupying authorities threaten parents with fines, deprivation of custody or arrest if they do not send their children to “Russian” schools or if the children study remotely according to the Ukrainian curriculum. Some parents are forced to hide their children.
Despite the punishment for distance learning or teaching according to the Ukrainian curriculum, schools that were Russified by the occupation authorities have a limited number of classes and hours of study. There is also an insufficient number of personnel in educational institutions. Often, even electricity does not work in schools in the occupied territories.
In addition, Russians torture teachers.
In the Kharkiv region, where about 15,000 of the region’s 80,000 teachers were under occupation from March to September 2022, the Russian authorities used coercion, detention, ill-treatment, beatings and torture with electric shocks to force teachers to work according to the Russian program or to hand over personal data of students .
The occupation authorities continue to put pressure on Ukrainian children, teachers and parents.
Human Rights Watch calls on the Russian authorities to comply with international humanitarian law, stop the Russification of the educational system, and prosecute those who put pressure on participants in the educational process.
The document also highlights the problem of criminal charges against Ukrainian educators for “collaborationism”. Human Rights Watch recommends not to sanction teachers in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine only for teaching according to the Russian curriculum.
“I agree that each case requires an individual approach. You cannot automatically blame everyone. However, if a person commits actions that harm Ukrainian statehood, he should be held accountable. There is only one reason why there is a problem with education in the temporarily occupied territories – the decision Russia to start a war against Ukraine. If the world does not stop the Russian Federation, then no recommendations will be effective. Ukraine, in turn, must guarantee an effective process of reintegration, distance education measures and informal methods of conveying information in order to preserve the Ukrainian identity of our children.” – notes the parliamentary commissioner for human rights Dmytro Lubinets.