Russia tells UN it is defending 'traditional families'
Moscow said at the UN on Monday it was protecting "traditional families", as it awaits being grilled over thousands of Ukrainian children believed to have been forcibly sent to Russia.
Kyiv estimates that 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Russia.
Russian minister Alexey Vovchenko told the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child that "the Russian Federation constitution since 2020 has contained new amendments which for the first time have protected the family, motherhood, fatherhood and children".
The panel of 18 independent experts is examining Russia's record, as part of a regular review that all countries have to undergo in turn, and should present its findings on February 8.
The Russian delegation will answer Tuesday questions about how many children have been "evacuated" to Russia or within Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine since Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The committee also wants to know what Moscow has done to protect "the right of such children to preserve their identity, including nationality, name and family relations".
Their lengthy list of concerns was sent to Moscow in the first half of 2023.
In his opening statement, Vovchenko, Russia's deputy minister of labour and social protection, did not mention the topic of Ukrainian children but defended Russian measures on strengthening "the institution of the family and protecting traditional families".
- 'Hero Mother' title -
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared 2024 as the "year of the family", with action to develop a strategy for "state demographic and family policies", said the minister, who is heading the Russian delegation at the hearing.
"We've created a new holiday in honour of fathers, Father Day, and we've restored the honorary title of 'Hero Mother', which is given to all women who have given birth to or brought up 10 or more children," he said.
The UN committee's list of concerns is long and includes concerns over discrimination towards LGBTQ children. In November, Russia banned the "international LGBT movement", claiming it was an extremist group, as the Kremlin pushes ultra-conservative social values.
The panel will also seek answers on what Moscow is doing to remove obstacles to children exercising their right to freedom of association and assembly, and to ensure that children are not punished for taking part in demonstrations, particularly against the war in Ukraine.
The NGO Human Rights Watch has told the committee it too is concerned about children's freedom of expression, their right to freedom of information, and discrimination linked to gender identity and sexual orientation.
Russian lawyer Olga Sadovskaya, who heads the Crew Against Torture human rights organisation, said Russia had seen an increase in violence "in every part of life", which therefore affects children.
She noted a sharp increase in domestic violence and the severity of brutality when people are arrested, and "when it burns somewhere, it spreads", she told AFP.
The UN committee wants to discuss the illegal or arbitrary detention of children, corporal punishment, and measures taken to preserve the cultural and linguistic identity of indigenous children.
- ICC arrest warrants -
Of the children moved by Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, only around 400 have so far been repatriated.
"Placements for evacuated children are arranged, first and foremost, at their request and with their consent," Russia said in a written response sent in October and shown to media by the UN on Friday.
It does not specify the total number of children affected, but said they "included children from national residential institutions for orphans and children without parental care (about 2,000 in total)" and children with Ukrainian citizenship.
It also said that in the second quarter of 2023, some 46,886 Ukrainian children acquired Russian citizenship.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Putin in March 2023 on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.
The ICC has also levelled similar charges against Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's presidential commissioner for children's rights.
Russia, which is not a member of the ICC, insists the warrant against Putin is "void".
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