Overview
- The UN Human Rights Council’s independent commission, established in 2022, released its report in Geneva on March 10.
- Investigators verified 1,205 child transfers and said thousands more were taken from occupied areas, with roughly 80% in reviewed cases still not returned.
- Evidence describes a state policy to block returns carried out at the highest level of Russia’s government, directly implicating Vladimir Putin.
- The report says measures violated international humanitarian and human-rights law by prioritizing adoptions and long-term placements, withholding information from families, and obstructing organized repatriations.
- Moscow argues some relocations were for protection, while the commission says evacuations must be temporary for imperative health or security reasons and notes the ICC’s 2023 warrant for Putin.