<
https://theconversation.com/we-investigated-russias-military-indoctrination-of-ukrainian-children-in-occupied-territories-what-we-found-was-more-shocking-than-we-could-have-imagined-287898>
"When we were asked to investigate Russia’s indoctrination and militarisation
of children living in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Moscow since 2014,
we had a general idea of the Kremlin’s occupation policies. Two of us grew up
in what was then Soviet-occupied Latvia and East Germany. We were already
familiar with the Soviet approach to “upbringing”.
But when we went to Ukraine, what we found still shocked us. There was plenty
of evidence of the systematic and coercive nature of the Russian federation’s
policies attempting to erase the identity of the Ukrainian children under its
control.
Our investigation was the sixth mission established by Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) since 2022 to investigate human
rights violations in relation to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It’s
the second to focus specifically on children.
The first of these two missions was concerned with their forcible transfer to
the Russian Federation. Our task was to build on this first mission and assess
whether Russia’s conduct during the war against Ukraine violates applicable
international law, such as the
Geneva Conventions and the
Convention on the
Rights of the Child.
During the three weeks of our mission, we collected and analysed a vast amount
of data. This included written reports, comments and statements produced by
international organisations such as the United Nations, the OSCE, the Council
of Europe and the European Union.
We also collected testimonies, both online and in person, from young adults who
had experienced indoctrination and militarisation as children in the
Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. And we also heard from teachers who
had spent some time under occupation before escaping to territory controlled by
the Ukrainian government.
During a visit to Kyiv, we also conducted a series of interviews with
representatives of Ukrainian government institutions and civil society
organisations.
Our report, presented to the OSCE Permanent Council on July 9, offers sometimes
distressing detail and harrowing witness accounts."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
