Final Conference of the EuroWARCHILD Project
Hosted by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and the Centre for Gender Research of the University of Oslo, the final conference of the EuroWARCHILD project took place on 7 May 2028 in Oslo.
At this conference, the research project team presented and discuss findings from the EuroWARCHILD project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC), Consolidator grant, 2021–2026.
The project has explored the experiences and needs of three generations of children born of war (CBOW) in Europe, particularly in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. The term CBOW refers to children fathered by enemy soldiers in times of war, by either sexual violence or consensual relations. The research team has gathered data by interviewing children born by WWII as well as the Balkan conflict of the 1990s and mapped the media coverage of the repatriation of children born by European foreign fighters to ISIS. The project has analyzed relevant international normative frameworks which encompass or omit the plight of CBOW.
During the span of the project, Russia went to a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. An intensification of a new European conflict means new CBOWs being born. A central aim of the EuroWARCHILD project is to learn from the past, to improve the future for new groups of CBOWs. This backdrop makes the discussions at the final conference of the EuroWARCHILD project increasingly urgent and important in a new security and geopolitical landscape in Europe.
The final conference brought together academic scholars, policy and practice communities, stakeholders, and research participants in the EuroWARCHILD project. We are particularly grateful for the former Norwegian prime minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, and Norway's Special Representative for the Protection of Civilians, Cathrine Andersen, for attending. We are also most grateful for the support of our research participants, some of whom attended the conference and even spoke on some of the panel discussions.
The former Norwegian prime minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik (left) and Norwegian activist and child born of war, Svein Vogel Ødegaard (right) on a panel about recognition and official apologies.
Presentation by Ingvill Constanze Ødegaard and Johanne Rokke Elvebakken (left).
More information about the event can be found here: https://www.prio.org/events/9276