In September 2014, Ukraine will present the VIII Periodic report on implementation of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to the Unites Nations Organization. It is a crucial point for Ukraine as the country is up to a fresh start after the recent political developments and is aspiring to become a strong united country.
In this situation, the Ukrainian Government faces a lot challenges on its way to deliver the full-fledged summary on the 4-year progress in achieving social equality for men and women, on prevention of all forms of discrimination and on creating social mechanisms to secure equality in the country.
As this is the responsibility of Ukrainian Government not only before the Committee on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, but first and foremost, before the Ukrainian society, it highly appreciates the technical and organizational support by UNFPA Representative Office in Ukraine.
This time UNFPA decided to support the initiative of the Ministry of Social Policy to bring together different stakeholders in order to discuss issues that are of the Committee’s concern and need multi-stakeholders’ approach to their improvement in Ukraine and to hold two thematic round table discussions.
Representatives of ministries, international organizations, NGOs, research institutions and experts came together to discuss the issue of portrayal women by media (on 27 May) and women vulnerable to different manifestations of discrimination (on 28 May).
The first day was opened by Ms. Nataliya Fedorovych, Deputy Minister of Social Policy. In her remarks, the recently appointed high official expressed commitment of the Ministry to support the initiatives of civil society and international organizations to introduce all necessary amendments into the national legislation, as well as to support information campaigns and other efforts aimed at raising public awareness about gender discriminatory practices in Ukrainian society.
Ms. Fedorovych also underlined the critical role of coordination between state bodies at national and local levels, with civil society, expert community and media to influence public opinion in order to create enabling social environment with equal and inclusive institutions.
UNFPA Representative for Ukraine Ms. Nuzhat Ehsan pointed out the positive steps that were taken by Ukrainian Government in the area, particularly the State Program for ensuring equal rights and opportunities to women and men in Ukraine till 2016. The program envisages a whole variety or measures to raise public awareness of gender inequality issues, crucial for effective implementation of positive practices into the real life.
“Traditional stereotypes regarding the roles and responsibilities of women and men in a family and in the society at large continue to be perpetuated by the media. Often this happens unintentionally, but due to the lack of basic gender concepts. This presents a significant impediment to implementation of equality of men and women in most spheres of life”, said Ms. Ehsan. “According to the research, women in Ukraine are twice as educated as men, they are overloaded with work and home responsibilities and they are very much in need of support to achieve success in their careers on the same footing as men.”
The participants shared their ideas and discussed the policies and advocacy measures that could be taken at different levels to empower women and secure the positive dynamics in changing traditional attitudes to gender issues.
The Ministry representatives recognized the role of UNFPA in Ukraine in facilitating the VIII Periodic CEDAW Report preparation and most importantly the organizational and financial support UNFPA is providing to the Government of Ukraine. This allowed the Ministry to launch the inter-ministerial working group and to conduct the expert opinion research on the national gender mechanism functioning, the women-survivors of violence shelters social workers opinion survey and public opinion poll on adult awareness in Ukraine about CEDAW Convention and other legislation preventing all forms of gender discrimination.
UNFPA in Ukraine has also developed two awareness raising public campaigns to emphasize the importance of equal distribution of family responsibilities (taking care of children and other domestic tasks) between women and men and another one aimed at reducing gender pay gap and eliminating discrimination at the workplace.
