Civil Rights Defender of the Year 2024 – Ukrainian Mariia Sulialina documents grave violations against children

“Ukrainian human rights defender Mariia Sulialina has, at a young age, already achieved the accomplishments of a lifetime. Despite personal losses and great risks, she has continued her work to document war crimes and other grave violations against children and ensure justice for children from the occupied territories of Ukraine who have fallen victim to indoctrination and deportation. For her exceptional resilience and dedication to human rights, democracy, and children's rights to determine their own future, Mariia Sulialina is awarded the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2024”, says Civil Rights Defenders’ Board of Directors in its award justification. (Full justification below.) 

Forced to leave her home in Crimea  

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, 545 Ukrainian children have been killed and over 19,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia. 

But the aggressions transformed Mariia Sulialina’s life long before that. 

Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula when Mariia Sulialina was 18 years old, forcing her to leave her hometown of Yalta. From her new home in Kyiv, she started documenting human rights abuses committed in the occupied areas. Since 2013, Mariia Sulialina has worked at Almenda, an organisation that records evidence of human rights abuses by collecting photographs and video clips and conducting interviews with teachers and parents. Almenda was founded by a group of human rights defenders in Yalta in 2011 that included Mariia Sulialina’s mother, Valentina Potapova, who still works there. Mariia Sulialina now leads the organisation with a team of 11 people. 

War crimes against children 

Children who have been deported to Russia from the occupied areas testify to re-education and brainwashing, and many are adopted by Russian families. Very few have returned. Children that remain in the occupied territories are also subjected to indoctrination. They attend Russian schools that try to convince them to support the war by, among other things, claiming that Ukraine started it. According to Almenda, Ukrainian children are seen as an asset to Russia as possible soldiers in the war when they are older. Several young Crimeans who were children when Russia occupied the peninsula have been conscripted into the war, and some have even volunteered to fight against Ukraine. 

Forced deportation and attempts to indoctrinate children to make them fight for the occupying power are war crimes and may qualify as genocide. For such crimes to be proven and the perpetrators held accountable, it is crucial that the abuses are documented.  

To gather evidence that can be used in future trials, Almenda has shifted its activities. While the organisation once focused on helping young people from the occupied Crimean Peninsula study in Ukraine and integrate into society, they are now also working on documenting war crimes. 

Almenda has a long list of suspects whom they hope will be held accountable one day. The organisation’s primary goal is to protect the rights of the over one million children living in the occupied areas and to develop national reintegration policies for the Ukrainian youth. Mariia Sulialina hopes to bring back all the Ukrainian children who have become hostages of the Russian occupation and restore their stolen childhood. 

Today, Mariia dreams of the day when she can go back to a free and democratic Crimea.  

“When I was a kid in Yalta, Crimea, there was a place where old ladies and gentlemen were dancing every Saturday. I was talking to my friend and we said, ‘one day, we will be 70 years old and we will be dancing there’. I still believe that will come true”. 

Comments on the Award 

“Children in the occupied territories are often invisible. They cannot speak on their own behalf as it is dangerous and could lead to criminal charges, and they are not very protected. The younger they are, the more influence propaganda has on them. Children are our future, and it is our obligation to protect them from militarisation and indoctrination and to ensure that the reintegration processes take their needs into account. This award is very important for our organisation as it brings more attention to children's rights in the occupied territories of Ukraine, and brings us closer to attaining accountability”, says Mariia Sulialina, Director, Almenda.   
 
“Children being killed. Children being abducted. These are just some of the grave human rights abuses that have been committed against children in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion, according to testimonies. Mariia Sulialina and Almenda are doing an extraordinarily brave and systematic job of both collecting evidence and testimonies of the abuses and providing support to the victims. Their work demonstrates the crucial role that a free civil society plays in documenting human rights violations and holding states accountable. They serve as a role model for the efforts for a resilient, democratic, and free Ukraine. I am very pleased to award Mariia Sulialina the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2024”, says Hanna Gerdes, Chair of the Board at Civil Rights Defenders. 
 
About the Award 

The Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award is an award for outstanding work in the defence of civil and political rights. It is awarded every year by Civil Rights Defenders. With the award, we recognise a prominent human rights defender who, despite the risk to their own safety, continues the struggle for civil and political rights. The award highlights the situation of human rights defenders at risk. It enhances their human rights work by providing international recognition and support to the award recipient.  

Contact   

If you would like to know more or book an interview, please contact our press contact at press@crd.org or call +46 (0)76 576 27 62.   

Additional Information  

• The Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award has been presented annually since 2013. Read more about the award here.   

• The prize has been awarded to human rights defenders from Hungary, Burma and Uganda, among others. Read about all the award recipients here.  

• Visit Almenda’s web page here. 

The full justification for the award 

Ukrainian human rights defender Mariia Sulialina has, at a young age, already achieved the accomplishments of a lifetime. Despite personal losses and great risks, she has continued her work to document war crimes and other grave violations against children and ensure justice for children from the occupied territories of Ukraine who have fallen victim to indoctrination and deportation. As the leader of the organisation Almenda, Mariia and her colleagues fight for access to education in the occupied territories, and advocate for the return and reintegration of Ukrainian youth. For her exceptional resilience and dedication to human rights, democracy and children's rights to determine their own future, Mariia Sulialina is awarded the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2024.