Check against delivery - Speech by Thórdís Kolbrún Reykfjord Gylfadóttir, Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Your Majesty,
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for gathering here today. It is a privilege to join you in this important and solemn discussion.
It is now almost four years since Russia launched its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine.
Four years may feel like a long time for adults - full of meetings, deadlines, and political cycles.
But for a child, four years is a lifetime.
It is the difference between learning to speak and learning to read.
The difference between learning to dream and learning to doubt.
And while time has moved on for the rest of the world, for the children of Ukraine time has not moved at all. It has stopped at the moment of rupture — the moment of loss, separation and fear.
Behind every diplomatic text, behind every communique and every headline, there is a child whose world has been violently broken.
A child whose room in Ukraine has remained untouched for years.
A school desk that stands empty beside classmates who do not know if they should hold onto hope or learn to say goodbye.
A family that wakes every morning into silence - wondering where their child has been taken, what has been done to them, whether they will ever hold them again.
No parent, anywhere, should have to endure that silence.
No child, anywhere, should have their identity treated as something that can be removed, rewritten or replaced.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The abduction and forcible transfer of children is one of the most devastating wounds inflicted by this war.
It is not an accidental side-effect.
It is not collateral damage.
It is deliberate.
Systematic.
Strategic.
Children have been torn from their families, communities, and the land whose language they learned to speak their first words. They have been taken far away, placed into systems designed to reshape their memories - told to forget their language, their roots.
Some of them return unsure whether they are allowed to love the country that raised them, whether they may speak the language that once felt natural, unsure even who they are meant to become.
Others come back carrying guilt, believing they have betrayed Ukraine by speaking the words adults forced them to repeat.
This is trauma that cannot be measured in months or years.
It is trauma that reshapes the architecture of a child’s mind.
Trauma that determines how they learn, how they build trust, how they form relationships, how they grow into adulthood.
It is trauma that, if left unaddressed, becomes an inheritance — passed from one generation to the next, a silent wound shaping an entire nation’s future. This we know from history and today.
And so, when we speak about reconstruction, we must remember:
It is not enough to rebuild bridges, roads or electrical lines.
A nation is not made of concrete.
A nation is made of its people — its families, its children, its future.
If we fail these children, we fail Ukraine.
If we fail Ukraine’s children, we fail Europe.
If we fail Europe, we fail ourselves.
The Council of Europe is at the forefront of efforts to support these children, including through an effective accountability response.
The European Court of Human Rights, in a landmark judgment on 9 July of this year, held Russia responsible for the unlawful deportation of children to Russia and, in many cases, their illegal adoption there. The Register of Damage recently opened a claims category for the Forcible Transfer or Deportation of Children.
Formally recognising these acts as heinous crimes is a first crucial step in addressing the debilitating harm caused to these children.
Trough its Action Plan for Ukraine, the Council of Europe is also more generally supporting Ukraine in its recovery and reconstruction, a plan in which children play a central role.
The Council of Europe Consultation Group on the Children of Ukraine (CGU) was set up by the Council of Europe in 2023 as an emergency response, acting as an important peer-review platform and rapid response mechanism to enhance the protections of children of Ukraine wherever they are.
Ladies and gentlemen,
During my visit to Ukraine, I met children who had returned after living through the most harrowing experiences
And when we listen to these children, we hear their plea —
not only to be returned to safety, but to be seen, heard and believed;
not only to come home, but to heal;
not only to survive, but to live again.
They are echoes of a wound that cuts across an entire generation.
Healing through trauma-informed care, this something the Consultation Group in particular is concretely focusing on by providing support and capacity building to front line professionals working with children who have experienced deep trauma.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The plight of abducted Ukrainian children is not a concern for Ukraine alone.
It is a concern for every country represented here.
It is a concern for every society that believes in the rule of law, in human dignity, in childhood itself. Its crucial for our own interest.
Because if we allow children to be treated as objects - instruments to betraded or silenced - then we surrender something essential about what it means to be human.
This is why unity and solidarity matters.
This is why moral courage matters.
The safe return of these children is not only a legal imperative.
It is a moral responsibility that defines who we are and what we stand for
And when these children return,their journey does not end at the border.
Healing is not something that happens automatically or accidentally.
Trauma does not disappear when a child is physically home.
Healing requires time, safety and patience,
trauma-informed care, and a community that refuses to look away.
Trauma-informed care is not an abstract concept.
It is the first building block of justice.
And without justice, peace is an illusion.
This is why accountability and trauma-informed care are the central priorities of my mandate.
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
we need to rebuild these children’s future.
As this war tragically rolls into its fourth year, let us be clear:
There will be no sustainable peace without accountability.
There will be no credible reconstruction without healing.
There will be no justice unless the suffering of the most vulnerable - the children - is addressed openly and courageously.
We must ensure that when Ukraine is rebuilt, it is rebuilt not only in its infrastructure, but in its humanity.
Not only in its institutions, but in its hearts.
Not only in its economy, but in the futures of its children.
That is the true meaning of rebuilding.
And so I call on all nations, all organisations, and all partners represented here today to unite around one simple, powerful principle:
Every child has the right to safety,identity,family.
Every child has the right to come home.
Not someday.
Not eventually.
But now — because every day that passes deepens the wounds, we must later struggle to heal.
Time is not a luxury that Ukraine or its children possess.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The children of Ukraine did not choose this war.
They did not choose to have their identities rewritten or their futures stolen.
But we can choose - today - to stand with them.
Let us leave this meeting not with polite expressions of sympathy, but with determination.
Not with silence, but with voice.
Not with hesitation, but with unity.
Let our shared resolve echo louder than the noise of propaganda and stronger than the threat of violence:
Every child matters.
Every child deserves to dream.
Every child deserves a future.
And every child must come home.
Therefore, the tracking has to continue and the Yale Human Research Lab be funded.
Thank you.