Ukrainian ombudsman tears up his membership card of European Ombudsman Institute

Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights said that he was withdrawing from the European Ombudsman Institute because of the illegal export of 2 Ukrainian children from Austria to Russia by a member of the organisation; protesting against this case, he defiantly tore up his organisation's membership card.

Source: Lubinets on Facebook

Quote from Lubinets: "I sent an urgent letter to the members of the European Ombudsman Institute to withdraw from this association. This step was a consequence of the fact that two Ukrainian children who were in the territory of the Republic of Austria due to Russian armed aggression, and were taken to the territory of the Russian Federation by a "human rights defender of the European Ombudsman Institute (EOI)" .

According to media reports, this was done by Dr Josef Siegele, Secretary General of the EOI, member of the EOI board and Deputy Ombudsman of Tyrol. The Austrian authorities have launched an official investigation into the actions of Josef Siegele".

Details Lubinets stressed that Siegele's actions were a violation of the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in war times. He also said that the forced transfer of children in this case "is one of the signs of genocide."

According to the Ukrainian Ombudsman, the EOI did not conduct an internal investigation and did not impose any sanctions on Siegele. The president of the organisation did not respond to Lubinets ' requests.

"I appealed to my colleagues who are members of the Institute to consider the possibility of an immediate withdrawal from the European Ombudsman Institute and condemn the actions of its leadership," he stressed.

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