Speaking elements for Gianluca Esposito

United Nations – Exchange of views: Human rights and the children of Ukraine

5 February 2026, at 3:00 p.m. (Palais de l’Europe)

Children do not choose war, yet they suffer some of its most profound and lasting harms.

Scale and nature of harm to children:Assessing the full impact of the war on children is complex and ongoing, but available data illustrates the scale:

• More than 1,000 children killed, according to UN and Ukrainian authorities.
• Tens of thousands of children have lost close family members.
• Hundreds of thousands have lost their homes due to shelling, missile, and drone attacks.
• Millions of children have been forcibly displaced, within Ukraine and abroad.
• Access to education has been severely disrupted:
• Over 1,600 educational institutions damaged or destroyed.
• Prolonged interruption of schooling, reliance on online or underground education.
• Cumulative impact following the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Major attacks on civilian medical infrastructure, including the strike on Okhmatdyt hospital in the summer of 2024.

Deportation and forced transfer of children:

• At least 20,000 children are documented as deported or forcibly transferred.
• Many more children remain in temporarily occupied territories, outside effective protection mechanisms.

The fate of the children of Ukraine remains a key priority for the Council of Europe action, including that of the DG HR ROL (DGI) mainly through two mechanisms: first being the supervision of execution of the European Court’s judgments and  second being the Regıster for Damages.

Continued CM supervision of Russian cases: Following its war of aggression against Ukraine, Russia ceased to be a member of the Council of Europe as from 16 March 2022 and a Party to the European Convention on Human Rights as from 16 September 2022. However, the Court continues to examine applications regarding alleged human rights violations by Russia that occurred before that date and the CM continues to supervise the execution of the judgments and friendly settlements concerned, focusing in line with a strategy adopted, on inter-State and conflict-related cases.

Communication with UN, other IOs and CSOs: Despite the total lack of communication from Russia since March 2022, Russia remains a member of the UN and a party to UN human rights instruments, with their own monitoring mechanisms. The general and individual measures required from the Russian Federation to implement the Court’s judgments often coincide with issues followed by the UN monitoring bodies.  For this reason, enhanced cooperation with various UN bodies (including the UN Special Rapporteurs, the UNWGEID, the HRC) is crucial and strongly encouraged by the CM.

Summary of the Court’s inter-State judgment: On 9 July 2025 the European Court of Human Rights delivered a landmark judgment in the case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia, holding Russia accountable for widespread and flagrant abuses of human rights arising from the conflict in Ukraine since 2014, in breach of the European Convention, including the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children in occupied areas to Russia, without parental or legal consent, and the facilitation of their adoption there.

In this historic judgment, the Court found overwhelming evidence of a systematic practice of transferring Ukrainian children in occupied territories to Russia. This continuous pattern of acts, aimed at integrating Ukrainian children potentially indefinitely into Russian families or institutions, started in 2014 and intensified significantly following the 2022 invasion.

The Court is clear: the children’s transfer from Ukraine to Russia does not qualify as lawful “evacuation” under international humanitarian law and constitutes grave violations of the Convention. The transfers are coordinated by Russian officials (including the Presidency) with the deliberate intention to sever these children’s ties with Ukraine and to assimilate them into Russian society. The Presidential Decree, facilitating the granting of Russian nationality to orphaned Ukrainian children and enabling their adoption by Russian families, exemplifies the institutional nature of this policy.

First examination of the inter-State case by the CM-DH: In its first examination of the inter-State case (CM/Notes/1545/H46-34 and CM/Del/Dec(2025)1545/H46-34), at its December 2025 Human Rights meeting, the CM:

• deeply deplored the systematic practice of unlawful transfer to Russia and, in many cases, the adoption there of Ukrainian children with the aim of integrating them potentially indefinitely in families or institutions in Russia;
• exhorted Russia to share a list of names and locations of children that have been illegally deported from Ukraine;
• urged Russia to revoke all domestic legislation and practices that facilitate the adoption of these children and the imposition of Russian nationality on children born in the occupied territories.

The CM also recalled, that according to the Court’s judgment, the Russian authorities must without delay cooperate in the establishment of an international and independent mechanism to secure, as soon as possible and with due consideration of the children’s best interests, the identification of all children transferred from Ukraine to Russia and Russian-controlled territory before 16 September 2022, the restoration of contact between these children and their surviving family members or legal guardians and the children’s safe reunification with their families or legal guardians.

Developments following the CM-DH meeting: In line with Committee’s instructions, these decisions were brought to the attention of the relevant international bodies, including the UN and the Secretary General sent a letter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation urging the authorities to comply with their international law obligations and to abide by the judgments of the European Court.

Way forward: Close cooperation with the UN is essential to ensure Russia’s compliance with the Court judgments: in particular, concerning this grave violation regarding the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children, a matter of mutual concern.

The CM will come back to this part of the inter-State judgment at its June 2026 DH meeting. For that meeting, the Secretariat will prepare a comprehensive overview of the ongoing developments and efforts on the international stage to safely find and return the Ukrainian children back home.

To achieve concrete results, it is vital that the COE and the UN work where possible together, sharing information and developments, exploring avenues forward, mutually reinforcing messages. We are committed to doing so and to enhancing all cooperation with the UN on this topic.

The Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine is an international mechanism established to ensure that damage caused by the war against Ukraine is documented and not forgotten, as a necessary step toward justice and future compensation.

Moral and legal imperative: It is a moral imperative for the Register to ensure that harm suffered by children is formally recorded as part of the broader international accountability architecture. Documentation is a prerequisite for justice, acknowledgment, and eventual compensation aimed at rebuilding children’s lives.

Claims framework relevant to children: The Register has established a structured framework of claims categories, including claims submitted on behalf of children. Claims already submitted reflect a wide range of harms affecting children, including:

• Loss of family members.
• Forced displacement.
• Injury.
• Sexual violence.
• Loss of access to education.
• Others

More than 4,000 claims submitted to the Register today on behalf of children.

Claims category A2.8 dedicated to deportation or forcible transfer of children has been opened in the fall of 2025. This includes situations where a child was unlawfully removed from their place of habitual residence or prevented from returning, including transfers from occupied territories. Claims in this category may be submitted on behalf of a child by parents, legal guardians, or other persons legally authorised to act in the child’s interests, in accordance with the Register’s rules. The Register recognises the particular evidentiary challenges in such cases and applies an approach adapted to the realities of war and occupation.

Institutional cooperation and synergies: Operating under the umbrella of the Council of Europe, the Register benefits from close cooperation with other Council of Europe initiatives focused on justice and accountability for Ukraine, including those addressing children’s rights.

Close cooperation exists with the Council of Europe Special Envoy on the situation of children of Ukraine, including through high-level engagements and field visits. This cooperation enables:

• Synergies between complementary mandates.
• Exchange and mutual reinforcement of expertise.
• More coherent international responses.

Evidence, cooperation, and civil society engagement: The Register cooperates closely with Ukrainian authorities, including law-enforcement bodies, particularly on evidence-related matters. Strong emphasis is placed on engagement with civil society:

• Through the RD4U Coordination Platform in Ukraine.
• Civil society organizations play a key role in outreach, documentation, and trust-building with affected families.

Cooperation facilitates:

• Exchange of relevant evidence between institutions investigating crimes against children.
• Enrichment and corroboration of claims.
• Development of a more comprehensive factual picture of harms suffered by children.

The Council of Europe and the DG HR ROL (DGI) will continue to accord utmost priority and attention to the action aimed at facilitating the return of forcibly transferred children of Ukraine to the Russian Federation. Within this context, DG HR ROL (DGI) is looking forward to the exchange on how to improve cooperation and synergies between the Council of Europe and UN mechanisms to reach this objective.