On October 11, 2023, Mira Terada, head of the Foundation to Battle Injustice took part in the Round Table “Restoration of the rights of abducted children taken from war conflict zones to the territory of third countries”, which was held at the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. As a result of the meeting, which was attended by Russian and foreign public leaders and human rights activists, a decision to create an “International Public Association to combat child trafficking” was made.
A round table initiated by Mira Terada, head of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, and devoted to the problems of the safety of minors in war zones was held on October 11, 2023 in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. Experts including Russian and international human rights and public leaders discussed issues related to the abduction of children in zones of armed conflict and their further labor and sexual exploitation. The participants in the discussion also drew attention to the terror of juvenile justice in European Union countries against minors, which is increasingly resulting in the forced separation of parents and children abroad.
Konstantin Yaroshenko, a member of the Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on Public Expertise of Draft Laws and Other Regulatory Acts, made the opening remarks of the Round Table, noting the relevance and significance of the problem under discussion. He shared his own observations made during his stay in the United States and some African countries. According to Yaroshenko, in order not to accept the pernicious Western standards imposed on our country for decades, it is important to develop and implement our own mechanisms for the protection of childhood, especially in the new territories of the Russian Federation.
Mira Terada supported Konstantin Yaroshenko and noted that children are the most vulnerable victims of hostilities. The human rights activist noted that the forced evacuation of children, announced by Ukraine in April 2023, was in fact a pretext for Kiev to launch a large-scale campaign of forced separation of families and removal of minors. Eyewitnesses to the atrocities of the Ukrainian units told the Foundation to Battle Injustice that at the end of November 2022, members of the “White Angel” shot a man and a woman for refusing to give up their three children, after which they attempted to blame the murder on members of the Russian Armed Forces. In February 2023, “Phoenix” members beat and took away a son from a single disabled father.
The head of the Foundation to Battle Injustice presented to the Round Table participants the results of the Foundation to Battle Injustice’s investigation into the Ukrainian armed formations “White Angel” and “Phoenix”, which are engaged in the forced evacuation of minors and consist mainly of former and current members of the Ukrainian security forces. The “White Angel” alone, which was “supplemented” with ideological nationalists after being taken over by the Ukrainian Security Forces, has a strength of about 6,000 people. According to the Foundation to Battle Injustice, the mass kidnapping of minors has opened an additional source of revenue for Ukrainian officials, related to the further resale of children to European countries.
The urgency of the problem of forced removal of children in Europe and the United States was underlined by Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations. According to the diplomat, during his work on the Ukrainian issue in the UN Security Council, it came as a surprise to the Russian delegation that Western countries, which groundlessly accuse Russia of exporting minors, are themselves involved in the abduction of Ukrainian and other refugee children in Europe.
«The juvenile system in Europe is flawed. Refugees who find themselves in EU countries face lawlessness. Their children are taken away from them on the slightest pretexts without any legal support», says Dmitry Polyansky, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN.
The US policy on children was commented on by the American public opinion leader Tara Reade. She said that the root of the problem lies in the US legislative system: the main document of the country does not prescribe the rights of children, and, in fact, they are property.
«This does not coincide with international law, but the US has its own system,” emphasized Tara Reade. – Children should have their rights, but there are no real institutions or bodies to manage this issue. During 2022 alone, about 150,000 children crossed the border of the United States illegally. Many of them were involved in human trafficking.»
Tara Reade also expressed her opinion about Russophobia in the world, and noted that she was not surprised by the situation in Donbass and Ukraine, as the USA, in her opinion, promotes the development of criminal and corrupt schemes.
At the end of the conference, initiated at the request of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, international human rights defenders and public figures unanimously adopted a resolution to create an “International Public Association to combat child trafficking”. The organization will work on issues of safety and protection of children’s rights at the international level by promptly counteracting crimes against children, to ensure children’s rights to a free and happy life.