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An open letter to European Heads of State and Government
We appeal to our compatriots and all European and world citizens to pressingly call upon the Heads of State and Government throughout Europe: Ukrainian children abducted and deported to Russia must be saved!
According to the Ukrainian authorities, several hundred thousand Ukrainian children, including nearly 20,000 unaccompanied minors identified by Kyiv to date (May 2023), are currently being held on Russian territory, with no guarantees or external controls on their living conditions. Some of them are reportedly deliberately separated from their parents by the Russian authorities.
Moreover, according to a UN survey, several thousand unaccompanied minors, orphaned or not, are at risk of being adopted by Russian families (Russia has not ratified the 1993 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-Country Adoption). In addition, Vladimir Putin has simplified the granting of Russian citizenship to these children by decrees of 25 May and 11 July 2022, thus facilitating adoption procedures for Russian families. Everything indicates that such forced adoption procedures have already taken place and are currently going on.
We must say NO to forced adoption and russification of kidnapped children!
Some of these children are already "in the process of re-education" – that is, russification! ─, as boasted by the Russian first television channel. The brainwashing of children is, in fact, part of the plan to eradicate the Ukrainian nation outlined by Timofei Sergeitsev, a close associate of Putin (RIA Novosti, April 2022), whose negationist remarks are taken up daily by the Russian media.
We cannot leave these thousands of forcibly deported and isolated Ukrainian children in the Kremlin’s hands. The forcible transfer of minors is a heinous and morally and politically unacceptable crime. According to the 1948 International Convention on Genocide (Article II), this is strictly speaking a genocidal act!
We urge the President of the European Council, the President of the European Commission, but also the Heads of State and Government of the whole of Europe to intervene unanimously and publicly by demanding from Russia the release of the children and all deported Ukrainian civilians.
We ask them to call on the relevant international organisations, including UNICEF and the International Red Cross, to intercede as soon as possible with the Government of the Russian Federation in order to visit these children, examine their living conditions and organise their repatriation to Ukraine.
The video has English subtitles
Many citizens, politicians, and artists from all over Europe already support the initiative. Among them:
Dr Charles TANNOCK (former MEP, UK); Robert LITTELL (novelist and former journalist, USA, France); Samantha DE BENDERN (Associate Researcher at the Royal Institute of International Affairs - Chatham House -, specialist in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, United Kingdom);Andrej KURKOV (writer, Ukraine, France);Volodymyr YERMOLENKO (philosopher, editor of Ukraine World);Pina PICIERNO (Vice-President of the European Parliament, Italy); Sofi OKSANEN (writer, Finland); Cédric VILLANI (mathematician, politician, France); Marie ARENA (Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights in the European Parliament, Belgium);Nathalie LOISEAU (MEP, Chair of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence at the European Parliament); Jean-Pierre PASTERNAK (president, Union des Ukrainiens de France); Oxana MELNYCHUK, (NPO "United for Ukraine", Ukraine, France); Andrius KUBILIUS (Member of the European Parliament, former Prime Minister of Lithuania); Raphaël GLUCKSMANN (essayist, MEP); Petras AUSTREVICIUS (MEP, Lithuania); Anna FOTYGA (MEP, Poland); Bernard GUETTA (ex-journalist, specialist in international geopolitics, MEP, France); Beata KEMPA (MEP, Poland); Jacek SARYUSZ-WOLSKI (MEP, Poland); Ivan ŠTEFANEC (MEP, Slovakia); Witold Jan WASZCZYKOWSKI (MEP, Poland); Isabel WISELER-LIMA (MEP, Luxembourg); Andres SUTT (Member of Parliament and former Minister, Estonia); Claude MALHURET (senator, France); Othar ZOURABICHVILI (president, Association Géorgienne En France); Nikolaï KOBLIAKOVN (Chair of Russie-Libertés, France); Silver TAMBUR (cofounder/editor-in-chief of the online newspaper estonianworld.com);Alemanno ALBERTO (law professor at HEC, Jean Monnet Chair in European Union Law, Italy); Yanelys APARICIO (essayist, professor at UNED, Spain), Dominique BLANC (actress, member of the Comédie-Française); Fabienne BRUGERE (university professor of philosophy, France); Joëlle BURNOUF (professor emeritus, medieval archaeology, France); Jean-Claude CASADESUS (conductor, France); Barbara CASSIN (philologist, philosopher and member of the Académie française, France); Catherine COQUIO (university professor of comparative literature, France); Albu COMANESCU RADU (researcher in European studies Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania);Florent COURY (writer, volunteer in Ukraine, France); Ben CRAMER (environmental safety expert, France); Michaël DELAFOSSE (Mayor of Montpellier, France); Camille DE TOLEDO (contemporary writer, France); Catherine DOLTO (aptotherapist, France); Grégory DOUCET (Mayor of Lyon, France); Dominique EDDÉ (writer, France); Angel ESTEBAN (essayist, professor at the University of Granada, Spain); Jean-Pierre FILIU (historian, France); Mgr Jacques GAILLOT (Bishop of Partenia, France); Anne GENETET (Member of Parliament, France); Bernard GOLSE (child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Conseil supérieur de l'adoption, France); Sophie GOUPIL (producer, France); Romain GOUPIL (filmmaker, France); Quentin GUILLEMAIN (deputy coordinator of Génération Écologie); Hassan HABIBI (President of ADERPI - Associations for the Defence of Iranian Refugees, Iran); Zoriana HANIAK (President of the Ukrainian Students' Association, France); Michel HAZANAVICIUS (director, France); Marketa HODOUSKOVÁ (founder and director of the Czech-In Ceská republika Festival, Czech Republic); Danielle JAEGGI (filmmaker, France); Sergueï JIRNOV (author, journalist and expert in international relations, Russia); Nino KIRTADZE (actress, Georgia, France); Pierre LÉVY-SOUSSAN (child psychiatrist, France); Jonathan LITTELL (writer, France); André MARKOWICZ (translator, France); Alexandre MELNIK (consultant and teacher in geopolitics, author, former diplomat in Moscow); Marie MENDRAS (political scientist, professor at the IEP, France); Aude MERLIN (specialist on Russia and the Caucasus, U.L.B. Belgium); Ariane MNOUCHKINE (director, Founder of the Théâtre du Soleil); Sarah MOON (photographer, France); Véronique NAHOUM-GRAPPE (anthropologist, France); Elisabeth NICOLI (lawyer, co-president of the Alliance des Femmes pour la Démocratie, France); Frédéric PETIT (Member of Parliament representing the French citizens living in Germany, Central Europe, Balkans); Edwy PLENEL (journalist, France); Olivier PY (director, Director of the Avignon Festival); Prof. Dr. med. Jochen ROEPER (Director, Institute of Neurophysiology Goethe University, Frankfurt, DE); Sylvie ROLLET (university professor emeritus in Film Studies, president of the association Pour l'Ukraine, pour leur liberté et la nôtre! France); Paul RONDIN (director of cultural institutions, France); Bruno SANCCI, journalist, special envoy to Ukraine (Patagonia, Argentina); Mathieu SCHNEIDER (president of the MEnS network, France); Fabienne SERVAN-SCHREIBER (film producer, France); Antoine SPIRE (president of the Pen Club, France); Meg STUART (choreographer, Belgium); Christian TERRAS (director of GOLIAS, France); Sergej SUMLENNY (Expert on Eastern Europe, former director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Germany); Nicolas TENZER (political scientist, France); Agnès TRICOIRE (lawyer at the Paris bar, France); Xavier TYLEMAN (founder Aviation NXT, influencer, France); Cécile VAISSIÉ (professor of Russian and Soviet studies, France); Carl Michael VON HAUSSWOLFF (composer/artist/curator) Sweden; Anders WEBERG (artist, Sweden);
Signatory institutions :
Ukraïner en français (ONG, Kyiv); Ukraine Solidarité France (membre du Réseau européen de solidarité avec l’Ukraine – RESU) ; Russie-Libertés ;Zentrum Liberale Moderne ; Génération Ecologie ; Missing Children Europe; Memorial 98 ; Génération Ecologie ; Union syndicale Solidaires ; Association Défense de la démocratie en Pologne ; CSDHI, Comité de soutien aux Droits de l’Homme en Iran
-Brigades éditoriales de Solidarité(À l’encontre; Centre Tricontinental; ContreTemps; Éditions Page 2; Éditions Spartacus; Éditions Syllepse; Entre les lignes, entre les mots; Europe solidaire sans frontières; Les Utopiques; M Éditeur; New Politics; Réseau syndical international de solidarité et de luttes -LabourSolidarity; New Politics);
And also :
Jean-Marc ADOLPHE (Editor-in-Chief, Les Humanités, France); Arnaud CASTAIGNET (Senior Fellow, Open Diplomacy); Alexis NUSELOVICI (University Professor in Comparative Literature, France); Gérard BENSUSSAN (University Professor Emeritus in Philosophy, France); Pierre RAIMAN (Historian, Secretary of the association Pour l'Ukraine, pour leur liberté et la nôtre! France); Emmanuel WALLON (university professor in political sociology, France); Bertrand LAMBOLEZ (PHD & team leader Neuroscience, France); Geneviève GARRIGOS, (councillor of Paris, France); Jacobo MACHOVER (writer, France); Anne BAUDOUX (actress, France); Brigitte STORA (journalist, author, France); André KLARSFELD (teacher, France) Gérard LAUTON (honorary lecturer, France); Anne MORIN (translator); Alain BOURGES (art teacher, writer and video maker, France); François BÉCHIAU (national secretary, Mouvement des Progressistes, France); Gábor ERÖSS, (deputy mayor of Józsefváros, Hungary); Lazare (actor, director, France); Bruno BOUSSAGNOL (directors, France); Anne-Marie COMITI-LAURENT, (lawyer, ex-president of the Dance Festival in Aix, France); Albert HERSZKOWICZ (doctor, Memorial 98, France); Géraldine CERF DE DUDZEELE (psychoanalyst, member of the Société de Psychanalyse Freudienne and vice-president of Cippa, France); ; Christine VILLENEUVE (co-director of the Editions des Femmes-Antoinette Fouque, France); Dominique COLAS (professor emeritus at Science-Po, France); Anne-Marie GOUSSARD (French Honorary Consul of Lithuania); Jean-Paul FARGIER (documentary filmmaker, film and video critic, France); Jean-Pierre GARBISU (ecologist and visual artist, France); Philippe CORCUFF (Senior Lecturer, IEP Lyon, France); Philippe MARLIÈRE (Political Scientist, Professor of Political Science at University College London, France, UK); Murielle GUILBERT (co-delegate general of the Union syndicale Solidaires, France); Cybèle DAVID (National Secretary of the Union syndicale Solidaires, France); Association Mouvement Citoyen Générations Annemasse (France); Union Comtoise de Yoga association (France); Association Gascogne Moldavie (France);
Pour l'Ukraine, leur liberté et la nôtre (For Ukraine, for their Freedom and ours) published an article on this subject in the French newspaper Le Monde : https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2022/08/05/deporting-ukrainian-children-and-russifying-them-is-jeopardizing-the-future-of-ukraine_5992568_23.html
Site : www.pourlukraine.com ; Twitter: @causeukraine ; Instagram : libertepourukraine; https://www.facebook.com/groups/pour.lukraine
