By Ally Shallal

History repeats itself – especially when the institutions meant to prevent it fail to act.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), adopted in 1998 and in force since 2002, was created to prevent atrocities like war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. While well-intentioned, the ICC is often criticized for its lack of an enforcement arm and inconsistent prosecution of national leaders, influenced by global power and regime type of offending states.

By comparing Operation Pedro Pan and the deportation of Ukrainian children, this article argues that the ICC often functions more as a symbolic human rights institution than an effective enforcement mechanism and examines why children remain targets in conflict, despite their international recognition as a “vulnerable population”.

Comparative Analysis: Operation Pedro Pan and the Russo-Ukraine War

To offset Cuban communist influence during the Cold War, the U.S. enacted a clandestine exodus of over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors from 1960-1962 in partnership with the Catholic Charities of Miami.

Many children were separated from their homes, some had their names changed, and adopted by “loving Christian families," accelerating their integration into American culture. While some were orphans, most were sent by their parents who feared the consequences of communist rule. Though “Pedro Pans” began to petition for the immigration of their parents in September 1961, some did not see their parents again due to systemic errors and a lack of resources dedicated to reuniting families.

Decades later, comparable patterns have emerged in the displacement of Ukrainian children.

Following the recognized start of the Russo-Ukraine conflict (2014–present), more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s initiative Bring Kids Back UA documenting 20,570 abducted Ukrainian children. Yet when considered alongside Russian reports to the UN, the true numbers may be considerably higher. Since 2022, Ukrainian children have been adopted by “loving Russian families with big hearts,” enrolled in the Russian education system in at least 210 facilities, and even forced to engage in military training – all of which sever the Ukrainian children’s emotional, cultural, and physical connections to home.

While the historical circumstances and stated purposes of Operation Pedro Pan and Russia's deportation of Ukrainian children differ substantially, the events display several parallels: 1) national security risks from opposing regimes; 2) leveraging children’s rights through forced cultural assimilation; and 3) the lack of effective international intervention. Further, both the U.S. and Russian governments claimed that displaced children could easily return home. In practice, both programs involved institutional placements and assimilation policies that complicated family reunification and children's ability to maintain their cultural identities. By withholding meaningful assistance and manipulating names, birthplaces, and other official identifiers, these administrations obstructed efforts to trace and return children to their homes.

In March 2023, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, for war crimes tied to the forced deportations. Yet, neither has been arrested and no major sanctions have been imposed to coerce Russia to withdraw from Ukraine or return the children. With just over 2,000 children returned to their homes, the ICC’s efficacy in issuing an indictment while lacking an enforcement arm is questionable.

And still, the ICC’s limitations go beyond enforcement. While the court was created in response to atrocities of the World Wars and Cold War, it cannot retroactively prosecute conduct that occurred before July 1, 2002. Consequently, Operation Pedro Pan was never subject to ICC proceedings, even though the allegations examined in this article could have supported charges like those brought against Putin and Lvova-Belova.

As a historical event, Operation Pedro Pan has potentially enabled the continued displacement of children in conflict, as evidenced by the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children, likely because it was internationally unrecognized. Even if prosecution of the U.S. is impossible, the UN Human Rights Council or Inter-American Commission on Human Rights should consider releasing an official condemnation of Operation Pedro Pan as a potential violation of children's rights. Rather than officially recognizing it as a “refugee” program, such a statement would acknowledge any unintended harm caused by the relocation, challenge scholarly perceptions of Western impunity, and help deter similar abuses like the displacement observed in the Russo-Ukraine war.

Implications of Displacement and Forced Assimilation

In times of conflict, children maintain rights to cultural environment, education, and religion, yet these are often the first to be violated. Forced deportation becomes feasible when families are killed or children are orphaned, leaving them vulnerable to coercion.

In Operation Pedro Pan, many children were separated from their families, while others were orphans or children without stable family support, making their transfer easier to justify and facilitate. The same pattern is evident in the Russo-Ukrainian War, where many deported Ukrainian children are orphans, those separated from parents during war, and children under state care. Russia has wielded a double-edged sword within international humanitarian law, invoking the special respect and protection afforded to children, to justify the ostracization of Ukrainian children from their ethnic communities under the guise of rescuing a vulnerable population from conflict zones.

Generally, forcibly relocated children assimilate into the host state, and may face future rejection by their families and communities. Thus, by physically relocating these children, Russia has contributed to undermining the Ukrainian children’s previous socialization, including socio-political ideals, language, and self-identification of ethnicity. Although the ICC has charged Putin and Lvova-Belova with war crimes and the UN has recently characterized the forced deportation of Ukrainian children as a crime against humanity, many scholars believe the policy of “Russification” may also evidence genocidal intent, jointly interpreted with Putin’s statements about a shared cultural identity among Russia and other post-Soviet states.

Where to go from here?

The forced relocation and assimilation of children violate both the spirit and, in many cases, the letter of international legal protections for children during armed conflict.

Children are not chess pieces to be leveraged on a battleground. International law already recognizes their inherent dignity and rights; the challenge is ensuring that states do as well.

Ally Shallal is a recent Legal Studies graduate of George Mason University’s Honors College, where she graduated with highest honors and distinctions as a multi-scholarship student. She served in student government, was inducted into Pi Sigma Alpha in 2025, and is an alumna of the American Enterprise Institute’s Summer Honors Program on Constitutional Law.

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