12/04/2022 16:27

In the occupied territories of Ukraine, Russian invaders are increasing forced mobilization

In the Zaporizhia region, the occupiers are looking for conscripts and taking them to military enlistments.

Conduct raids on public utilities.  There are mobile patrols and posts in the region from among the mobilized residents from the temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

By intimidating families and relatives, the racists are forcing Ukrainian police officers to join the so-called “people's militia».

In the Luhansk region, the occupiers catch men on the streets, take men from their jobs at utilities and factories, and forcibly send them to military enlistments.

Men in the region have begun to hide, as even students and people who are unfit for  taking part in military units due to health problems are called up.

In the temporarily occupied Crimea, the racists launched a campaign to attract doctors from local health care facilities to work in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

The occupying authorities argue the need to go to ORDLO by saying that a significant number of doctors in these territories were mobilized to take part in the war against Ukraine.  Crimean doctors should take their place in hospitals in eastern Ukraine.

Forced mobilization in the occupied territories is a violation of Article 51 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.  It strictly prohibits the occupying State from forcing persons under protection, ie those under the control of a party to the conflict or an occupying State of which they are not nationals, to serve in its armed or auxiliary forces.

I appeal to the UN Commission for Investigation Human Rights Violations during Russia's Military Invasion of Ukraine and the expert mission set up by the OSCE participating States under the Moscow Mechanism to take into account these facts of war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine.