Ukraine’s courts convict 31 perpetrators of war crimes against children

The Prosecutor General's Office announced this on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

"More than 3,800 war crimes committed against children since Russian invasion are being investigated. Fifty-four persons have been charged, and 31 have been convicted," the statement reads.

Also, during 2023 and four months of 2024, juvenile prosecutors protected the rights of 13,862 children. About a quarter of them were affected by war

In total, indictments regarding 5,726 crimes against children were forwarded to court, and 2,009 culprits were convicted.

The PGO noted that the prosecutors from the Department for the Protection of Children's Interests never stop their work both in combating crimes against minors and in preventing child crime.

"Special attention is paid to fighting crimes against sexual freedom and inviolability of children. During the specified period, 1,022 criminal proceedings were initiated in this regard. A total of 270 perpetrators were convicted. Data on 727 people have been added to the ‘pedophile register,’” the Prosecutor General's Office added.

The PGO recalled that last year, a pilot project on implementing the Standards of child-friendly justice was launched. These are new approaches that include employing specialists trained to work with children; engaging professional psychologists; minimizing the number of surveys (interrogations) and doing them in conditions deemed convenient for children; special procedural interview techniques instead of interrogations and other measures aimed at avoiding child re-traumatization.

Implementation of the pilot project in six regions of Ukraine yielded positive results, so this year the project was scaled to cover another six regions.

The process of equipping special premises for children to be able to take part in the prosecution process continues: 12 centers based on the Barnachus model and 85 "green rooms" have been deployed.

Prosecutors are also working to change the approach to children in conflict with the law from a repressive to a restorative one. They are expanding the use of community service as a form of punishment (for museums, libraries, veterinary clinics, etc.).

In total, in 2023 and four months in 2024, restorative approaches were applied to 322 minors.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Russian troops have killed 550 children and injured at least 1,364 since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.