A meeting focused on Multi-agency Co-operation and Data Collection was held on 8 July 2020, as the final gathering in a three-part Roundtable Series on advancing the fight against violence against women and domestic violence through Istanbul Convention standards. 28 participants attended the roundtable focusing on Articles 7, 10 and 11 of the Istanbul Convention, including representatives from the Ministry of Social Policy, Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Police, State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, State Center of Free Legal Aid Provision, Government Contact Center, civil society, international organisations, international and national experts, as well as the Council of Europe (CoE) office in Kyiv and Gender Equality Division.

Based on a fundamental idea of the Istanbul Convention that no single agency or institution can address violence against women and domestic violence alone, the round table was opened by Olena Lytvynenko, the Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine and Anatoliy Osadchyi, the Department of Implementation of the European Equality Standards, the Head of Gender Policy Department, Ministry of Social Policy. Initial presentations discussed the benefits of comprehensive and co-ordinated policies at all levels of government and by all relevant agencies and institutions to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence.

Biljana Brankovic, an international expert of the Council of Europe, examined Istanbul Convention standards on multi-agency cooperation and data collection and introduced promising practice from CoE member states. Tamara Bugaiets, a national expert of the project, shared Ukraine-specific information collected in the framework of this project with the round table participants.

An open discussion of methodological approaches to multi-agency cooperation and promising practices demonstrated in international expert’s presentation followed the presentation, to serve as a good basis for the development of multi-agency cooperation in the country. The participants were also interested in data collection analysis prepared by the project national expert.

Council of Europe resources shared with participants during the Awareness Raising roundtable included the following CoE guidance:

• Implementing Article 10 of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence – establishing national co-ordinating bodies
• Ensuring data collection and research on violence against women and domestic violence: Article 11 of the Istanbul Convention

A Ukraine-specific report on national coordinating bodies and data collection, in line with the Istanbul Convention, is currently being developed and will be made available by the end of 2020.

This roundtable series and subsequent report is implemented under the CoE project “The Istanbul Convention: a tool to advance in fighting violence against women and domestic violence in Ukraine” and is funded by the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018-2021.