Ombudsman Lubinets States His Withdrawal From European Ombudsman Institute After Transfer Of Ukrainian Children To RF

Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, announced his withdrawal from the European Ombudsman Institute (EIO) after its representative has transferred Ukrainian children to Russia. Lubinets announced this on Facebook, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Sent an urgent letter to the members of the European Ombudsman Institute about leaving this association," he wrote.

Lubinets noted that this step was a consequence of the fact that two Ukrainian children who were in Austria due to Russian armed aggression were taken to the territory of Russia by the "human rights defender" of the EIO. According to the media, this was done by the General Secretary of the EIO, Josef Siegele, and the Austrian authorities have launched an official investigation into Siegele's actions.

The Ombudsman emphasized that this is a violation of Articles 49 and 50 of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of the Civilian Population in Time of War, which prohibit the forced resettlement or deportation of persons from the occupied territory. The specified facts, namely the forcible transfer of children from one group to another, is one of the signs of genocide in accordance with Article II of the UN Convention of December 9, 1948 "On the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide."

Lubinets noted that at his request, the European Ombudsman Institute did not conduct an internal investigation and did not apply appropriate sanctions to Siegele, the Institute's president, Dragan Milkov, ignored his requests.

"I believe that such actions harm the national interests of Ukraine, at a time when a bloody full-scale war continues... I appealed to colleagues who are members of the Institute to consider the possibility of immediate withdrawal from the European Ombudsman Institute and condemn the actions of its leadership," Lubinets wrote.

He expressed his gratitude to colleagues who left the EIO, Ombudsman of Latvia Juris Jansons and Ombudsman of Lithuania Erika Leonaite for their unequivocal position and quick reaction to the above situation.

Lubinets believes that all members of the organization who are supporters of democratic principles, for whom human rights are not empty words, cannot remain aloof from this situation and continue their membership in the EIO.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in December, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov reported that Russia had deported 13,000 Ukrainian children during the war.

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