Urgent need for the protection of survivors of gender-based violence in Ukraine focus of side event at Warsaw Human Dimension Conference

Addressing the pressing issue of violence experienced by women and girls in conflict zones was the focus of a side event at the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference, held on 4 October 2023.

Organized by the Gender Issues Programme WIN Project, and co-hosted by the 2023 OSCE Chairpersonship of North Macedonia, the Permanent Delegation of Finland to the OSCE, the Permanent Representation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the OSCE, and the United States Mission to the OSCE, the event brought together experts and activists to discuss the dynamics of violence against women and girls in Ukraine.

“Conflict-related sexual violence has been a feature of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and Crimea since 2014. Today, one and half years after the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2022, the scope and scale of these crimes are much larger,” said Ulyana Holovenko, Deputy Director of the Ukrainian Foundation for Public Health. “It is now more important than ever to build survivor-centred systems and processes, to work towards a legal and procedural framework for safe and effective investigations, and to ensure long-term psychosocial support for survivors and their children, and the coordination of this response,” she added.

During the event, participants raised crucial questions, including how the dynamics of violence against women change in conflict situations, the specific challenges faced by women in Ukraine today compared to the pre-war period, and the obstacles women survivors encounter when trying to seek protection. The event also looked into the needs of civil society organizations with regard to combatting violence against women and girls and assessed the responsiveness of donor policies to these needs. Several good practices and tools were shared, including the OSCE-WAVE Toolkit on Preventing and responding to gender-based violence during the war and in post-war settings.

“Ensuring the protection and well-being of survivors and bringing the perpetrators to justice is urgent in Ukraine and remains one of our priorities,” said Lara Scarpitta, OSCE Senior Adviser on Gender Issues. “For this reason, since last year we have redoubled our efforts to support our civil society partners, especially women-led organizations, who are at the forefront of protecting survivors and responding to gender-based violence”.

The side event also built upon the conclusions of the OSCE Gender Issues Programme’s facilitated exchanges between the activists from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine, an ongoing process initiated in 2022 and focused on discussing the perspective of civil society on the dynamics of violence against women and girls in conflict.

The side event took place within the framework of the multi-year ExB project “WIN for Women and Men on strengthening comprehensive security through innovating and networking for gender equality”.