International Commission of Jurists

In this case, the applicants on behalf of their grandchildren (all Finland nations) who were held in a camp and had no access to legal aid or to legal information that would enable them to submit a communication. The child victims were born in the Syrian Arab Republic and were being held in the Hawl camp in the north-east of the country, which was under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces, where the applicants claimed that they were at risk of irreparable harm in the knowledge of the Finnish Government. The applicants claimed that the State party has not taken the measures necessary to repatriate the child victims to Finland and that this failure to act constitutes a violation of articles 2, 6, 19, 20, 24, 27, 28, 37, 39 and 40 of the Convention, as well as of article 7 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict. The Committee found a violation of Articles 6 (1) and 37 (a) of the Convention and recommended that the State party a) takes urgent positive measures to repatriate the child victims, acting in good faith, b) supports the reintegration and resettlement of each child who has been repatriated or resettled, and c) takes additional measures, in the meantime, to mitigate the risks to the lives, survival and development of the child victims while they remain in the north-eastern Syrian Arab Republic.

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