EHRAC lawyers represent Crimean orphans at European Court hearing 

Today (22 September), lawyers from the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) appeared before the European Court of Human Rights in a landmark case concerning the enforced disappearance of Ukrainian children.

With our Ukrainian partner lawyer, Serghiy Zayets, we are representing ten children who were between one and five years old, and deprived of parental care, at the time of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The children were living in Ukrainian state childcare institutions when Crimea came under Russian control. Russian citizenship was imposed on them and they were included on Russian adoption databases. Their current whereabouts remain unknown, but there is credible evidence that at least four have been transferred to Russia and placed either in Russian institutions or with Russian families. We argue that the children are victims of enforced disappearance.

The Russian authorities’ actions in Crimea are recognised as laying the groundwork for the wider deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children since 2022, an issue which has attracted international attention.

You can watch a recording of today’s oral hearing on the Court’s website.