Canada, Ukraine and Norway have ended a two-day Toronto conference with a new joint framework aimed at improving the return of Ukrainian children, detained civilians and prisoners of war held by Russia.
The document, called the Toronto Pledge, was endorsed at the Pathways to Peace conference on 28 and 29 September. Its practical emphasis is not a single new release mechanism. Instead, it sets out a shared programme of tracing people, checking individual case information, widening routes for return and planning for the support people may need once they are home.
That distinction matters. The communiqué acknowledges that progress has been uneven and that no predictable system has emerged for the release and return of detained civilians. It also says reliable information and humanitarian access remain difficult to secure. The pledge therefore combines political calls with more operational commitments: better documentation, contact with states and organisations that might help facilitate returns, and work to remove legal, administrative and logistical obstacles.
For children, the signatories said they would support efforts to identify, trace and locate those they describe as unlawfully deported or forcibly transferred, and to verify information about individual cases. They also committed to sustain and expand practical pathways for safe return, including through willing states, international organisations and civil-society groups. The document places rehabilitation and reintegration alongside return, with support intended for children and their families rather than treating arrival in Ukraine as the end of the process.
The same approach extends to civilians who remain in detention. The pledge calls for timely information about their identity, whereabouts, legal status and condition, as well as access and monitoring by relevant mandated international organisations. Its language on conditions of detention is carefully framed as concern about persistent reports, including reports of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, mistreatment, restricted family contact and inadequate medical care. It calls on Russia to provide information, allow communication with families, lawyers and relevant international actors, and release and return civilians without preconditions.
For prisoners of war, the signatories call for regular and unimpeded humanitarian access and for information about identity, status, whereabouts and conditions of detention. They say practical pathways should include exchanges and engagement with intermediary states, while identifying women prisoners, seriously wounded or sick people and those held for long periods as groups needing particular attention. Allegations of executions, torture, sexual violence and deaths in detention are presented in the communiqué as documented reports; it says such conduct may amount to serious breaches of international humanitarian law.
The framework also looks beyond individual cases. Participants committed to strengthen Ukraine’s readiness for larger-scale returns when conditions allow, including sustainable recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration systems. That is an important recognition that a substantial increase in returns would place demands on housing, health, family reunification, documentation and specialist support.
International co-ordination is the other main plank. The communiqué says the coalition focused on returning Ukrainian children has expanded to 51 members. It also points to existing UN, Council of Europe and other international mechanisms as channels through which governments, humanitarian organisations, experts and civil society can work together.
The Toronto Pledge does not itself guarantee access, disclosure or releases, and the communiqué is frank about the barriers that remain. Its significance lies in making a broader set of commitments public after the conference: returns are linked to tracing, diplomatic engagement, humanitarian access and long-term reintegration. Whether that co-ordination produces more consistent results will depend on access to those held, reliable case information and the willingness of states able to help open practical routes home.
