The Future Is Human: A Rousing Call from Dr. Sylvia Tiryaki at the Creative Women Platform Forum

Creative Women Platform _ Gateway to a Sustainable Future Forum - London 09_05_25

On a crisp spring afternoon in London, as the historic Plaisterers’ Hall, Olga Balakleets CEO and Founder of the CWP and her team welcomed women leaders, artists, educators, and policymakers from around the globe, one keynote stood out—not for its theatrics or polished stagecraft, but for its extraordinary humanity. Dr. Sylvia Tiryaki, a scholar and lawyer specialised in the fields of Human Rights and International Public Law. Tiryaki with a voice both resolute and tender, delivered a speech that danced between history and prophecy, weaving anecdotes from war-torn classrooms to philosophical insights that challenged our very definition of sustainability.

She called it simply: “The Sustainable Future is Human.” And indeed, what followed was not a speech in the traditional sense, but something closer to a collective reckoning.

Tiryaki opened with a poignant reminder: 9 May marks Europe Day—a date many might overlook, but not her. For the last 25 years, she’s taught students from Portugal to Ukraine, from Turkey to the UK, and with each May 9th came the same question: What does the future mean to you? The answers, she shared, have changed over the years—from climate change and justice, to digital rights, mental health, and now, more hauntingly, war.

“This generation is not just worried about the polar ice caps,” she said. “They’re worried about borders. About conflict. About being erased before they’ve even had a chance to start.”

There was a moment of stunned silence as she evoked the image of young people lost to wars past—entire cohorts of twenty-somethings who never became doctors, poets, or parents. It wasn’t statistics she offered—it was ghosts.

But this was no eulogy. It was a call to arms—a poetic manifesto for a new kind of resilience. Tiryaki challenged the room to reconsider what we mean when we talk about sustainability. “It’s not just about solar panels and carbon footprints,” she insisted. “It’s about people. About dignity. About whether our young people live long enough to grow old.”

With the charisma of a philosopher and the precision of a diplomat, she stitched together reflections on the 75th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration with today’s anxieties over global unrest. At times, she seemed to channel the hopes of an entire generation through her own lived experience.

There was humour too—dry, knowing, and refreshingly honest. “Europe,” she quipped, “should be like a lighthouse—not perfect, but visible. Something you can steer by when the waves get high.” It was a line borrowed from one of her students, but in her telling, it felt timeless.

Perhaps the most moving moment came when she spoke about Brexit—not as a divorce, but as a divergence. And yet, she was adamant: “I don’t believe Brexit erased Europe from British hearts. Nor did it remove Britain from Europe’s future.” There was a quiet dignity in that. No finger-pointing. Just an invitation to collaborate—wisely, compassionately, humanly.

Throughout her address, Tiryaki never raised her voice. She didn’t need to. Her words rang with a kind of quiet urgency—the kind that doesn’t demand attention, but earns it.

She ended as she began, with a truth so simple it almost feels radical: Sustainability is human. And in a room full of changemakers, visionaries, and women who are already reshaping the world from the inside out, her message found fertile ground.

One could argue that many speeches are forgotten by the time the chairs are stacked and the microphones unplugged. But this one—this gentle, powerful, and unflinchingly honest keynote—will echo long beyond the forum.

Because Sylvia Tiryaki didn’t just speak about the future. She reminded us that we are already writing it.