Below is an excerpt from the statement by Irene Orysia Sushko, president of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations, submitted to the annual session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women.
… We regret that across the sub-region that includes Ukraine, violence against women remains both unacceptably high and under-reported. The status of women in Ukraine has been further compromised by the emergency situation created by the aggression against Ukraine by the Russian Federation…
A side effect of the ensuing war is the exacerbation of women’s problems – they are the majority of displaced persons and caretakers of the traumatized… The wartime context has increased public-sphere gender-based violence. …reports of these human rights violations have been hindered, some say even silenced, by a set of factors demanding explanation. … This is of global importance because the greatest obstacle to the advancement of the Beijing platform today is the multiplication of the world’s conflict zones and the predominance of women and children among the displaced and victimized.
…On the Ukrainian eastern front, trafficking in persons has increased. There are kidnappings, rapes, and the sexualized torture of women and children, and of men. Much of this violence appears to be doled out in political retribution. …these incidents are not being openly reported.
…Ukrainian women’s NGOs emphasize the need to train and re-train government personnel in the detection, recognition and prevention of gender-based violence. …In the instances where gender-based violence appears to be doled out as political retribution, the victims’ security is of paramount importance, as are the objectivity of human rights observers and the honesty of the media to report the instances of sexualized violence as political retribution.