Ombudsman: Russians use child labor, militarize children in captured territories
Russian aggressors use child labor and militarize minors in the temporarily captured territories of Ukraine.
That’s according to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, who reported the news on Telegram on World Day against Child Labor, Ukrinform saw.
He emphasized violations of children's rights in the temporarily occupied territories.
As Lubinets noted, the issues of combating child exploitation are defined by international and national legislative acts, which both Ukraine and Russia have ratified and committed to comply with. Among them is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defined, in particular, the right to protection from exploitation and work that may be harmful to the child; as well as the European Social Charter, which ensured children's rights to adequate education and social protection and set a minimum age for employment to limit access to hazardous forms of work; and Convention No. 182 of the International Labor Organization on the worst forms of child labor, ratified by Ukraine in 2000, which determined the need to combat slavery, sexual exploitation, involvement in armed conflicts, etc.
At the same time, the ombudsman said, today the Russian Federation ignores norms of international law. The Commissioner's Office regularly ceives appeals from citizens from the temporarily occupied territories regarding the violation of their rights, including on the use of child labor and the militarization of children.
"Unfortunately, Ukraine does not have access to the temporarily occupied territories, so we are deprived of the opportunity to monitor the protection of children's rights in these territories. Millions of Ukrainians, including hundreds of thousands of children, remain beyond our country’s legal field," Lubinets emphasized.
On World Day against Child Labor, he appealed to the world to condemn Russia’s actions that violate the norms of international law.
"I urge you to support the Ukrainian Peace Formula in order to protect our children – their right to a happy childhood in a free and independent state," Ombudsman Lubinets emphasized.