Belén López Garrido co-ordinated the ground-breaking investigation on “The Missing Children of Ukraine”, which shed light on the Kremlin-organized transfer of hundreds of minors from occupied areas of East Ukraine into Russia, and their placement into Russian families for fostering or permanent adoption.

The results of the investigation were published a month before the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for the “unlawful transfer and deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine into the Russian Federation”.

A graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, Belen has worked as a reporter, field news producer and foreign correspondent for different news organizations, and for over a decade she was a news editor at the Eurovision News Exchange.