“Gender quoting and responsibility for its violation must be enshrined in the electoral legislation," -- Iryna Herashchenko
On December the 7th, speaking to the Second Ukrainian Women’s Congress in Kyiv, Iryna Herashchenko, the First Vice-Speaker, the Presidential envoy for a peaceful settlement of the Donetsk-Luhansk clash, emphasized the need to increase the women’s representation in all socio-political spheres.
"Today, neither our society nor international partners of Ukraine believe that only 49 women are in the Parliament. They all have the impression that the representation of women there makes at least 50%," said I. Herashchenko.
She, however, noted that in order to increase the women’s representation in politics, it is critically important - prior to the 2019 elections - to introduce gender quotas and liability for their violations.
She clued in that women are now represented in the parliamentary leadership and chair key parliamentary committees and ministries. However, she noted that there are no women in some of the committees, particularly in the budget committee, whilst Ukraine seeks to introduce gender-based budgeting.
I.Herashchenko thanked the organizers of the event and underlined the important role of the Inter-factional parliamentary association “Equal Opportunities” in achieving gender equality in the Ukrainian society.
The First Vice-Speaker stressed that the adoption of the law on equal rights and opportunities for women and men while on service in the armed forces and other military formations, which destroys discriminatory prohibitions against women in the army, was a clear success of this session.
The politician said that today, there are some 25 thousand women on service in the military of Ukraine with only 3 308 officers among them – which is at odds with the potential of Ukrainian women "and the huge contribution that Ukrainian women make to the peacekeeping processes".
According to I. Herashchenko, Ukraine has not yet joined in the world trend - active involvement of women in peacekeeping processes, therefore, the parliament’s task before the end of its cadence should be further destruction of stereotypes and discriminatory restrictions on women in the military and other fields of social life.
The representative of the humanitarian sub-group of the TCG also noted that women play an important role in negotiations over settlement of international and internal military conflicts. "Incidentally, there are no women among the representatives of the Russian Federation in the Trilateral Contact Group. Perhaps, this is why the humanitarian issues remain frozen,” said the Ukrainian representative of the TCG’s humanitarian sub-group.
Iryna Herashchenko said that, unfortunately, it is women who suffer today the most from the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. According to her, since 2014 – one thousand four hundred fifty women have become widows, two thousand children have lost their parents, and over 2,200 women have lost their sons, who perished defending the homeland.
"I want to thank all mothers and wives of prisoners of war, hostages and political prisoners of the Kremlin, who, together with the community of nations, are heroically fighting today for the liberation of their families," stated I. Herashchenko, and expressed her conviction that the Ukrainian society should understand the significant contribution of Ukrainian women in peacekeeping processes and provide them with all-round assistance and support.