The UNFPA Representative in Ukraine Ms. Nuzhat Ehsan and the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Ms. Valeriya Lutkovska signed the Memorandum of Understanding. The ceremony took place at the Office of the Ombudsperson and was followed with a press conference.

The Commissioner stressed that signing the Memorandum is an important step in developing the cooperation with UNFPA that will facilitate the improvements of the human rights protection system in our country.

According to the Memorandum, the main areas of cooperation between the UNFPA in Ukraine and Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights include promotion of social and humanitarian human rights, in particular for health, education, adequate standard of living, social security, protection against discrimination on grounds of gender and age, elaborating strategies and mechanisms to strengthen women's participation in political life, addressing the labor income gap between women and men, systematic monitoring of human rights and freedoms in the field of social protection and health.

In her remarks, the UNFPA Representative said that this partnership and the Memorandum are of tremendous importance for UNFPA particularly on the threshold of the historical event to take place in November during the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit – the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement.

Ms. Ehsan also confirmed the UNFPA commitment to work with the Government of Ukraine to promote international standards in the area of health, gender equality, ensuring the right of minorities, as well as in education. The UNFPA Representative and the Ombudsperson Office agreed on the joint events to be organized in the upcoming months and the next year.

Ms. Ehsan also took the possibility to draw the attention of the Ukrainian media to the issue of population census that has been postponed to 2016. “UNFPA is working on strengthening the national capacity for conducting the census in compliance with international standards and I hope we can advocate all together for it to make sure the census takes place in 2016,” said the UNFPA Representative.