The Council of Europe Office in Ukraine is working to increase gender equality in Ukraine. The gender adviser Katja Tiilikainen, who joined the office last year, tells about the work of the Council of Europe on gender issues in Ukraine.
What is the Council of Europe office in Ukraine doing on gender equality?
We are working in many different ways to enhance gender equality in Ukraine. We have a project that specifically focus on gender equality issues, like the recently finalized project “Combating Violence Against Women and Children”. We also have a project that aims to strengthen the access to justice for women victims of violence. In that project, which is supported by the EU, a study on barriers, remedies and good practices for women’s access to justice in Ukraine as well as a training manual for judges and prosecutors on ensuring women’s access to justice were produced. The project on reform of the electoral practice had a specific component to increase women’s political participation.
In addition to gender specific projects we are mainstreaming gender in all our projects. Gender mainstreaming is one of the priorities of the Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2023. For example the project Strengthening the Human Rights Protection of Internally Displaced Persons in Ukraine emphasized equal accessibility for women and men in the process of drafting legislative amendments regarding IDPs or supporting the changes to legal procedures and mechanisms strengthening the rights of IDPs. The project also provided training on awareness-raising and prevention of gender-based violence. Another example is from our project “Strengthening Capacity of Local Elected Authorities", that in February organized a workshop on the challenges and opportunities of gender equality at the local level.
Photo: Workshop Gender equality at local level: challenges and opportunities in Ukraine in the project Strengthening Capacity of Local Elected Authorities
Why gender equality is so important?
First of all, gender equality is a basic human right. No one should be discriminated for being a woman or man. All countries should make use of the potential of its all inhabitants. For example, according to different studies, women’s increased participation in the labor market has a positive impact in national economies. Women are around a half of the population in each country, so their interests should be equally presented in the decision-making. More equal societies are also more sustainable societies.
What do you see as main challenges for gender equality in Ukraine?
Progress has been made in gender equality, but a lot still remains to be done. For example, women’s political participation is low, only 12 % of Members of the Parliament are women. In order to enhance the equality between women and men it is also important to tackle stereotypes that limit making full use of the potential of women and men. This could concern both work life or how care responsibilities are shared in households. Another barrier for gender equality in Ukraine is violence against women. The violence against women does not only affect women but also children, communities and the society as whole. Violence against women has huge emotional, psychological and economic costs. Home should be a safe place to every one of its habitants, and no one should experiment fear at home. In order to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence an important tool is the Council of Europe Convention on Prevention and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, the so called Istanbul Convention. The Convention provides a comprehensive approach to violence against women: not only the prevention of violence, but also the protection of the victims as well the prosecution of those who are responsible of those acts. Ukraine has signed the Convention, but not yet ratified it. In order to support Ukraine on how to tackle violence against women and domestic violence, our project “Combating Violence Against Women and Children in Ukraine” developed concrete working tools for relevant professionals groups dealing directly with victims of violence against women (police, judges and prosecutors and social services) and those authorities in Ukraine in charge of promoting changes in perceptions and raising awareness among the general public.
Talking about the Istanbul Convention, why its ratification is so important?
As mentioned, the Convention provides a comprehensive approach to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence. Victims’ needs and rights are at the heart of the Convention. For example, with reference to protection of victims, the convention foresees the establishment of shelters as well as free of charge 24/7 hotline. It criminalizes different forms of violence against women such as different forms of domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment. It also enhances cooperation between different authorities (law enforcement official, social services, prosecution, etc.). Violence against women is a human right violation. Violence against women and domestic violence are tearing apart Ukrainian families and cannot be seen any longer as a private matter.
More information on the Convention can be found on here in Ukrainian and in English.
Photo: An activity of the project Combating Violence Against Women and Children
