At the International Conference “Defending Democracy: Battlefield of Truth”, Heather Roberson Gaston, Human rights expert; University of Virginia, USA, delivered a powerful reflection on the future of human rights and reconstruction in Ukraine.

She argued that rebuilding democracy and protecting freedom must begin now, even before the war ends — and that the greatest challenge is not capacity, but political will.

Opening Remarks by Heather Roberson Gaston

I’m actually glad to be speaking later in this session — because as I’ve been listening to others, I’ve been deleting, deleting, deleting. There’s no need to repeat what has already been said so well.

The question we’re addressing today — what will we do about the human rights situation in Ukraine after the war? How will we rebuild? — is not premature.
It is not too early to ask what comes next, even when we don’t know when the war will end or what a ceasefire will look like.
These are questions we must ask now.

From experience in peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction, we already know much of what will be needed — and Ukraine is no exception.
We will need to rebuild homes and infrastructure. We must be vigilant against the abuses that can accompany reconstruction — exploitation of workers, corruption, or inequitable access to housing and services.

We also know that over a million war veterans will need care, many suffering from severe mental and physical trauma. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have lost limbs.
The media sector, too, has been relentlessly targeted and will require immense support to recover.

The challenges are vast — but they are not too vast for us to face.
The real issue is that many people look at Ukraine and think: this is too big, too complicated, too expensive — let’s turn away.
To them, we must say: yes, it is immense, but we know what needs to be done. There are already people — many of them here in Skopje today — who are doing this work, building the foundations for recovery and justice.

We have the knowledge, the expertise, and the capacity to act.
What’s missing is political will.
That’s the part that drags. But that’s also the part that every one of us can help move forward — by speaking, persuading, reminding others that we already have the tools and solutions; we only need the will to act.

This mission will be different from any before.
Speaking as an American, I can say that in past peacekeeping missions, there has often been the attitude that we come to show others our way, to export democracy and freedom as if they were ours to give.

But this time, it’s different.
Here, almost everyone has stared into the abyss of unfreedom for years — it has only deepened over the last decade.
So our motivation is not charity, not foreign aid, not something we do for others while neglecting our own priorities.

This is about survival — shared survival.
People will ask: what about our own healthcare, our services, our needs at home?
And we must be able to answer clearly:
If we fail to confront what is happening in Ukraine, if we don’t take a stand and meet this challenge — there is no “home.”
Because what’s under threat there is the same thing that protects all of us — freedom itself.

The panel was held as part of the international conference “Defending Democracy: Battlefield of Truth”, organized within the framework of the project “Democratic Navigator”, with the support of the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.