Collaborative on Global Children's Issues

Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, children are recognized as protected persons and are considered an “object of special respect” under Article 77 of Additional Protocol I of 1977. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has underlined that international humanitarian law prohibits forced transfers and deportation of protected persons. However, thousands of children affected by the war in Ukraine have been separated from their families, communities, and country and forcibly transferred to Russian-occupied territories or deported to Russia. International law is unambiguous when it comes to the protection of children affected by conflict.

For example, the Fourth Geneva Convention provides specific legal guidelines for the treatment of children who have been separated from their families during war, including those who have been evacuated from their homes due to fighting. Family members must be able to communicate with one another, systems must be established to identify and register separated children, and temporary evacuation of children should be always to a neutral state with parental consent.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world, adopted by the United Nations in 1989, says that: 

States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference [Article 8(1)]; States Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will [Article 9(1)]; States Parties shall respect the right of the child who is separated from one or both parents to maintain personal relations and direct contact with both parents on a regular basis [Article 9(3)]; Where such separation results from any action initiated by a State Party, such as the detention, imprisonment, exile, deportation or death (including death arising from any cause while the person is in the custody of the State) of one or both parents or of the child, that State Party shall, upon request, provide the parents, the child or, if appropriate, another member of the family with the essential information concerning the whereabouts of the absent member(s) of the family [Article 9(4)].

Resolution 1612 [on Children in Armed Conflicts], adopted by the United Nations Security Council in 1999, details six grave violations against children during armed conflict. Grave violation 5 is the abduction of children by either state or non-state actors during both interstate and intrastate warfare.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948, states that the forcible transfer of children from one group to another may constitute a violation of Article 2(e) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted by the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court on July 17, 1998, recognizes the forcible transfer of children as one of the component acts of the crime of genocide, which is a crime against humanity.

The Resolution on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 18, 2019, focuses specifically on children without parental care. It emphasizes the importance of growing up in a family environment and the right of the child to a family; it also opposes the unnecessary separation of children from their families and the unlawful or arbitrary deprivation of liberty of children. Finally, the resolution encourages efforts to reunify families when in the best interests of the child.

International law is clear. Mechanisms for enforcement and accountability appear to be under-developed as thousands of children and families remain forcible separated across conflict lines.

Gillian Huebner is the executive director of the Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues at Georgetown University and one of the moderators of the July 12, 2023 webinar on “The Forcible Transfer and Deportation of Ukrainian Children by Russia: Search for Solutions.”