TRP’s Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR)

The Reckoning Project has submitted a report to the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR) as a civil society contribution for its review of the Russian Federation. The report covers the related issues of the forcible transfer and displacement of Ukrainian children and violations of Ukrainian children’s right to education in the occupied territories and while in the care of the Russian Federation. It has been submitted to inform the review of Russia’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which enshrines economic, social and cultural rights such as the rights to adequate food, adequate housing, education, health, social security, water and sanitation, and work.

The Committee (CESCR) conducts the review of the Russian Federation’s implementation of the treaty and writes the concluding observations. The direction of the dialogue and the consequent conclusions have political and legal significance, offering authoritative findings that are used in domestic and regional litigation, within the U.N. system in the shape of subsequent procedures and reports, and in policy reports. More generally for a public audience, the submission is another opportunity to highlight details of life under occupation related to the experience of children.

TRP’s submission is unique, as it summarizes violations documented by TRP and considers how Russian Federation violations persistently link seemingly disparate articles under the International Covenant for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (e.g. the right to family and right to education). The submission places these violations in discourse with other conventions and human rights jurisprudence.

International attention on Russia’s violations against Ukrainian children is urgent. Russia has engaged in the strategic abduction, forcible deportation, and indoctrination of Ukrainian children throughout the war in Ukraine. This submission provides an opportunity and platform to shed light, in an international forum, on conduct by the Russian Federation in the occupied territories impacting on the basic rights of Ukrainian children and families.

Find the full report below.