Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe : Spring session, 22 - 24 March 2004

(To be checked against delivered speech)

Speech by Oleksandr BATALIN, Member of the supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukraine), Vice-Chair of the Committee of the Chamber of the Regions

Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the organisers for inviting me to such an authoritative forum and also giving me the opportunity to address this auditorium. First and foremost I would like to emphasise that our committee's ongoing efforts to resolve pressing issues of social equality in Europe reflect real demands of present-day society, and today's agenda certainly demonstrates that.

I would like to dwell on work in the social equality field in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the recommendations of the Congress and the Council of Europe on this issue.

At present there are 2,051,000 people living in Crimea. Of that total, 1.1 million are women, which is nearly 55% of the population.

Ukraine's Constitution and legislation forbid sex discrimination.

In May 2001 the Ukrainian government approved the National programme of measures for improving the situation of women and promoting gender equality in society for the period 2001-05. The Crimean government adopted a decree on measures to implement that National programme in December 2002.

It is interesting to take a look at the trends regarding the work and participation of women in local authority bodies in Crimea. Over the period 1995 to 2002 the corpus of elected representatives underwent substantial qualitative changes. With successive elections the number of women elected increased by 3% each time. Women accounted for 40% of Crimea's local council deputies in 1995, 43% in 1998 and 46% in 2002.

On the basis of the last elections, in 2002, the proportion of women heading or chairing rural, urban and municipal councils in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea stands at 20.5%. Two of the Crimean Parliament's standing committees are chaired by women, and in the Crimean Council of Ministers one woman is vice-premier while two others hold ministerial posts. And we continue to regard this issue as a priority, taking steps in the right direction.

At the beginning of March a republic-wide forum entitled "Women of Crimea – for solidarity and gender equality" was held in Crimea and attended by over 300 guests and representatives of public organisations and state bodies. The main task of the forum was to unite and coordinate the efforts of women's non-governmental organisations and state bodies aimed at intelligent, effective implementation of state policy in aid of women and the family. As the participants in the forum themselves pointed out, it was a milestone in the establishment of gender parity in Crimea. The participants were addressed by the Chair of the Crimean Council of Ministers, the Ukrainian President's Permanent representative in Crimea and the Chair of the Crimean Parliament's standing committee. At present there are 93 women's NGOs in Crimea, 17 of them at republic level.

In the academic sphere, over 40% of women working in research hold a first-level or second-level doctorate. One quarter of women holding first-level or second-level doctorates are engaged in research work.

The proportion of researchers in higher academic institutions is 53.4%, in industrial sector organisations it is 49% and in higher education establishments it is 43.7%. In Crimea virtually one in three female researchers is engaged in research in the agricultural sphere and one in four in the technical sphere. Within this category of women about 12% work in the sphere of physics and mathematics, and up to 6% in biological, medical, geographic or geological sciences. About half of Crimea's woman specialists and researchers are aged between 40 and 54 years and a quarter are less than 39 years old.

Measures to improve the situation of women and promote gender equality in society are implemented by both state bodies and non-governmental organisations.

In May 2003 the Crimean Republic government created the Coordinating council for the implementation of gender policy under the Council of Ministers, whose main task is to coordinate the work of state institutions and non-governmental organisations.

The Government committee on family and youth affairs cooperates in the gender sphere with representatives of the UN Crimea development and integration programme. Four seminars and training courses were held in Crimean regions in December 2003, providing local authority and NGO representatives with information about gender policy issues.

Crimea actively pursues a policy geared to reducing unemployment among women. In 2003, the Crimean employment department dealt with 72,700 female job-seekers (62.6% of the total number of job-seekers). Over that period 19,800 women were placed in work. The level of employment among women in the republic is 27.2%. The gender issue remains topical in our society. Wage levels for men and women doing the same work are identical but the problem is that, despite having a high level of training and education, women mostly occupy less prestigious and lower-paid jobs.

The Young people's labour centre, set up under the Republic committee on family and youth affairs, is working to increase employment among women. From September to December 2003 it found work for 25 women and provided advice for 173 women. About 30 women have found jobs with the help of women's NGOs. Legal advice on starting small and medium-sized enterprises has been provided in over 20 cases.

The Ukrainian Law "On employment" provides for special guarantees for the work placement of women. For 2003 1,200 jobs were reserved (for women with children under 6 and single mothers with children under 14 or disabled children). In that period there were 8,100 women in this category. Two thousand of them were placed in employment, including 1,000 in reserved jobs. 83.3% of the jobs reserved for women were filled.

One form of active support for the unemployed is the holding of seminars. 7,200 seminars for the out-of-work were run by employment centres over the period, attended by 57,300 people, 64% of whom were women. 621 seminars on job skills and job-hunting were attended by 6,700 people, of whom 65.5% were women.

Encounters between job-seekers and employers were organised in 2003 with a view to optimising workforce employment, including for women. A total of 368 "job fairs" were attended by 7,100 women. There has been increased demand in professions such as data-processors, hairdressers, cooks, pastry-cooks, waitresses, bar-tenders and personal assistants.

Job-seekers are being trained in professions and entrepreneurial skills, and two thousand of them, or 68%, are women.

Ukraine's state policy in the area of labour protection is geared to the creation of proper, safe and healthy working conditions and the prevention of accidents and occupational illnesses. This is guaranteed under the Law "On labour protection".

On the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, state administration of labour protection is the task of:

- the Council of Ministers, local state administrations and local authorities;

- the territorial directorate of the Ukrainian State committee for the supervision of labour protection in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which is a sub-division of the central executive authority specially empowered to supervise labour protection;

- and also the Executive management directorate of the Ukrainian Fund for social insurance against industrial accidents and occupational illnesses in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

All the organisational and methodological work, coordination of activities and cooperation between executive authorities and local authorities, institutions, organisations and employers to tackle problems of labour protection and work safety in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the corresponding regions are pursued under long-term programmes. Republic-wide measures are implemented to improve safety and hygiene in the working and industrial environment and prevent non-industrial trauma, and there are similar regional measures at municipal and district level.

Funding for preventive labour protection and regional labour protection programmes comes from various sources, including local budgets. Current legislation also provides for the funding of republic-wide measures from the Ukrainian Fund for social insurance against industrial accidents and occupational illnesses.

The prerogatives of the Crimean government in the labour protection sphere are exercised by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

A special section has been set up within the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection to fulfil those functions. Its specialists focus on questions of labour protection and health and safety and also carry out the work of the Council on public health and safety questions, which advises the Crimean government.

There is provision within local state authority structures for the setting up of labour protection departments, and public health and safety councils may be established in the public domain.

The local executive authorities of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea incorporate departments specialising in labour protection in all the regions.

At present, under the agreement between the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the National Research and Development Institute for labour protection, a republic-wide system of administering labour protection is being devised. This activity is planned as part of the Programme of republic-wide measures to improve work and industrial safety and hygiene for the period 2001-05.