We expect this
year the Parliament ratifies the Istanbul Convention, and this will be an
important tool for combating domestic violence.
The Vice-Speaker of the Ukrainian
Parliament stressed so during the meeting with Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and
Executive Director of UN Women. She also thanked to the UN representative for
her active support in introduction of the gender equality reforms in Ukraine
and praised the tight links with the Ukrainian manager of UN Women Anastasiia
Divinska.
The politician also told how the Equal Opportunities Caucus (EOC) works on promoting women’s rights and opportunities in Ukraine, and in the Parliament in particular.
Iryna Herashchenko denoted that since June 7, 2017 the Government has launched the government plenipotentiary for gender policy, whose key task would be harmonizing efforts of ministries and departments to this end.
It has been underlined that Ukrainian women participate actively in peacekeeping processes. Presently, 8,5% of the total Ukrainian army staff make female soldiers, out of which only 2553 are officers.
A close watch is kept over a highly tense security and humanitarian situation in Donbas and blocking of international missions by SRDLO and the Russian Federation's militants there. The appalling facts of human trafficking, abductions, sexual abuses, tortures in the Crimea and occupied territories were made public.
The TCG humanitarian
subgroup’s representative Iryna Herashchenko once again declared the chief task
for Ukraine still remains liberation of 128 Ukrainian hostages in SRDLO with
women and teenagers among them.
The parties had also talks over the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). A whole informational and educational front has recently been set out throughout the Parliament's fractions to achieve the ratification. The appropriate Polish and Georgian knowledge is under consideration too.
According to the
President’s aide in the Parliament Iryna Lutsenko, the bill on Istanbul
Convention is in the pipeline already.
Iryna Lutsenko showed her gratitude to Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN Women for 13 UN offices in Ukraine rendering a sizeable aid to the internally displaced persons.