November 24th, 2025

​Speech for a United Nations Session
Delivered by the World Children & Youth Physical Education Academy (C.Y.P.E.-Academy)
General Manager Timo Virtanen
Honorable President of the General Assembly, distinguished delegates, esteemed representatives of nations, ladies and gentlemen,
I stand before you today on behalf of the World Children & Youth Physical Education Academy, but more importantly, I stand here on behalf of the children who no longer have a voice — the tens of thousands who have been killed or maimed in armed conflicts across the world.
According to UNICEF, over 104,100 children have been verified killed or seriously injured in conflicts since 2005.
Think about what that means: tens of thousands of futures erased. Thousands of classrooms emptied. Countless families shattered. And each statistic represents a name, a face, a story — a child whom the world failed to protect.
In Ukraine alone, 669 children have been verified killed and 1,833 injured since February 2022. Similar tragedies unfold in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Palestine.
Different conflicts — but the same outcome: children pay the highest price.
Yet despite this immense suffering, not a single political or military leader responsible for these deaths has stood trial.
Not one conviction.
Not one courtroom judgment.
Only unexecuted arrest warrants and unkept promises.
Your Excellencies,
This reality forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth: the international community has allowed a system in which killing children carries no real consequence.
We have created a world where a child’s life is sacred on paper — but disposable in war.
A world where leaders can order strikes on neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, playgrounds — and walk away with political immunity.
A world where justice for children is not denied by law, but by inaction.
This is not a legal failure alone.
This is a moral failure, one that every nation represented in this hall shares responsibility for correcting.
Therefore, today, I make a direct appeal to world leaders:
1. Enforce existing international arrest warrants against perpetrators of crimes involving children.
2. Strengthen and protect the independence of the International Criminal Court.
3. Stop providing political cover for any state or actor that kills or maims children.
4. Ensure that explosive weapons with wide-area effects are banned from use in populated areas.
5. Create mandatory, enforceable accountability mechanisms for grave violations against children.
Accountability is not a political choice — it is a human obligation.
Children deserve justice not someday, not when it becomes convenient, but now.
Distinguished delegates,
The measure of our humanity is not found in our speeches, our treaties, or our resolutions.
It is found in whether we protect those who cannot protect themselves.
Right now, children in conflict zones rely on us — on you — for their safety, their rights, and their futures.
So I ask you:
If the global community cannot defend children from war crimes, then what authority does it truly hold?
If we cannot stop the killing of the innocent, then what purpose does this institution serve?
Let us not fail them again.
Let this be the moment where the United Nations chooses courage over convenience, action over silence, and justice over impunity.
Children have only one life.
And the world has only one chance to defend it.
Thank you.
Signed,
Timo Virtanen
General Manager
World Children & Youth Physical Education Academy (C.Y.P.E.-Academy)