In the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Combating violence against women and children in Ukraine” (hereinafter – the Project) was organised a fact finding mission devoted to mapping the recent and existing initiatives to raise awareness on violence against women that took place in Kyiv, Ukraine on 20-21 July 2017.

Taking into consideration the suggestions put forward by the Ukrainian authorities and the needs assess during the fact-finding mission to Ukraine that took place in April 2017, the project foresees the development of a long-term strategy for sustained communication and awareness-raising measures though the provision of a blueprint containing recommendations and practical tools to promote zero tolerance for violence against women in Ukraine. The blueprint provided by the expert will be based on the mapping of the recent and existing awareness-raising initiatives on violence against women/gender equality in Ukraine implemented by the authorities, NGOs, international organisations, etc and will be carried out in cooperation with national expert/s and national authorities, media, social services and civil society.

During the above mentioned fact finding mission, Ms Karin Heisecke, International expert on preventing and combating domestic violence together with Marta Becerra, Program Advisor, Department on gender equality and human dignity of the Council of Europe visited Kyiv conducted a series of meeting with the following stakeholders of the Project: Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, civil society organisations and media and private sector representatives. During the meetings questions of complex awareness raising strategy and practical tools for advocating zero tolerance towards violence against women in Ukraine, were discussed.