The study presents a substantiation for a conceptual approach for developing a strategy for assessing the traumatic impact on children who remained under the control of the aggressor state for a certain period of time. Experts have developed a methodology for assessing the consequences of deportation, forcible transfer, militarization, and indoctrination, as well as other aspects of Ukrainian children’s experience of being in the occupied territories. The study is supplemented by recommendations on rehabilitation programs for the adaptation of children in the sociocultural context of Ukraine and overcoming the implications of trauma, as well as recommendations on the application of the methodology to ensure accountability for international crimes and illegal acts.
The study comprehensively presents situational manifestations of health disorders at the physical, emotional, and cognitive levels, as well as manifestations of health disorders at the level of social regulation of behavior and activity. Furthermore, a comprehensive assessment of health disorders covered indicators that characterize the worldview, i.e., ontological, spiritual level of health through the identification of signs of value orientations and the specifics of the construction of an internal image of the world. The inclusion of ontological and worldview levels in a comprehensive assessment of a child’s health is an essential feature of the proposed model for examining the impact of Ukrainian children’s stay in the totalitarian society of the aggressor state. In addition, not only are the indicators (assessment criteria) specified from the perspective of situational changes, but also from the perspective of persistent socio-psychological maladjustment, as well as disorders at the level of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Legal analysis of the traumatic factors identified in the study leads to the conclusion that the aggressor state has committed systematic violations of international humanitarian law, international criminal law, and international human rights law. The main focus was on the way these factors may be used to classify acts as crimes under national and international law, including such factors as deportation, forced displacement, forcible transfer to Russian families, Russification, indoctrination, militarization, separation from family and community.
The legal aspect of the methodology outlines possible approaches to establishing individual criminal responsibility and international state responsibility. The analytical framework covers the relationship between manifestations of health impairments, traumatic factors, and elements of crimes under the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The study outlines the potential for its
application in criminal proceedings, when filing complaints with United Nations treaty bodies and other international human rights mechanisms. The methodology is supplemented by recommendations for national authorities and the international community on documenting and qualifying unlawful acts, as well as ensuring the rights and best interests of the child as a party in criminal proceedings.
This project was created by Regional Center for Human Rights with the support of a grant from the Children’s Resilience Fund: Providing Capacity Building and Funding to Ukrainian Civil Society Organisations in Ukraine. The program is implemented by Crown Agents Ukraine and Integrity Action. The content does not necessarily reflect the views of Integrity Action or Crown Agents in Ukraine.