On Friday 11 November, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will hold a special meeting on the situation of Ukrainian children, including those taken deep into the occupied territories or to Russia.

According to the PACE press service, hearings are scheduled for Friday 15 November, in Paris. PACE President Tiny Cox and Vice President and Ukraine's delegate, Olena Khomenko, will open the meeting.

The morning session will focus on the situation of Ukrainian children in Council of Europe member states, their access to medicine and education, and the measures taken by the EU to protect Ukrainians.

The issue of children deported or taken against their will to Russia, Belarus, or far into occupied territories will be discussed in the afternoon. Speakers at this session will include Paulo Pisko, the PACE rapporteur on deportations and forced displacement of Ukrainian children, Viktoriia Litvinova, the Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine, and Dmytro Lubinets, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament).

Video records of testimonies on this subject should be presented at the meeting, along with ideas on how to locate these children and make it easier for them to return to Ukraine.

At the end of November, the PACE approved the creation of the Special Committee for Ukrainian Children’s Affairs. It was headed by Ukrainian delegate Olena Khomenko.

In April the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognised the deportation and forced displacement of Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation as a genocide.

PACE also urged the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Alexander Lukashenko, self-proclaimed President of Belarus, for the deportation of Ukrainian children.