On August 25-28, the first module of the training course was held, the purpose of which was to train experts/consultants in the development of a municipal system of prevention and combating domestic violence. The course was part of the partnership between the UNFPA Ukraine and 15 cities selected for support in 2020-2021 under the Cities Free of Domestic Violence Project and envisages the availability in the Ukrainian municipalities of experts thoroughly aware of the necessary aspects of development of the municipal system of prevention and combating of domestic violence.

Lviv, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Poltava, Odesa, Kharkiv, Mykolayiv, Kherson, Kremenchuk, Dnipro, Severodonetsk, Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, Pokrovsk, Melitopol: each partner city of the Cities Free of Domestic Violence Project delegated three participants for the course, including representatives of authorized bodies of City Councils, specialized services that provide assistance to victims and leading relevant local NGOs. This made it possible to build a constructive dialogue between the participants during the training, hold quality discussions, share experiences and begin to form an all-Ukrainian network of experts/consultants for the development of a municipal system of prevention and combating domestic violence.

In addition to studying the basic theoretical concepts and analysis of the issue of domestic violence, as well as its impact on community welfare, course participants familiarized with the specifics of municipal and national systems of prevention and combating domestic violence, as well as international approaches to this addressing this issue.

The practical activities included visiting the Crisis Centers for victims of violence in Kyiv and the Kyiv City Center for Gender Equality, Prevention and Combating of Violence. Course participants had the opportunity to communicate directly with employees of the facilities and find out a number of practical aspects of their activity. Staffing, funding, inclusion in local programs, setting the working hours are among many issues that arise in the course of launching the facilities, and they were explained based on the experience of special Kyiv City facilities.

Meetings with representatives of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and the National Police of Ukraine were quite dynamic.

Olha Revuk, Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine for European Integration, spoke about the creation of an interactive map of facilities that provide assistance to victims of gender-based violence in Ukraine: “This should be a map of Ukraine with Oblasts, Rayons, where one could just click on the relevant city and see whom to address with a relevant issue. Also, we might create a search engine, ... where people would just enter their city, without looking for it on the map and see a list of those responsible and directly involved in addressing this issue”.

The problem with the accommodation of victims in shelters at the place of actual residence was also analyzed. The course participants noted that in practice, due to the inconsistency of the legislation there are cases of refusal to accommodate the victims in the shelter at the place of their actual residence.

Kateryna Pavlichenko, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, answering the question of the course participant, told about the preparation of a legislative initiative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on bringing the perpetrators to justice without their participation with proper notification of the consideration of relevant cases. The current legislative provision on compulsory participation significantly hinders such bringing to justice.

In addition, participants had the opportunity to put a number of practical questions to Dmytro Hladchuk, Head of Human Rights Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Olena Vykhor, Head of Division for Social Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence of the Department of European Equality Standards of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, Olena Dashutina, Head of Department of Monitoring Gender Equality and Coordination of Combating Domestic Violence of the Human Rights Department of the National Police of Ukraine and Yevhen Mamushkin, expert of the Department of Monitoring Gender Equality and Coordination of Combating Domestic Violence of the Human Rights Department of the National Police of Ukraine.

This is the first of four training modules of the course; the next three will take place in Odesa, Kharkiv and Vinnytsia.

The training course for experts/consultants on the development of a municipal system of prevention and combating of domestic violence is conducted within the UNFPA Programme on Combating Gender-Based Violence and is supported by the UK Government.