On 4 July 2023, 40 participants, including enforcement officers from the National Police of Ukraine and staff members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, attended an online event marking the launch of an online course on “Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence for Law Enforcement.” The course has been translated into Ukrainian and was developed by the Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) programme of the Council of Europe. The participants were welcomed by Erlend Falch, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, and Olha Perunova, Head of the Gender Equality Unit and Deputy Head of Department of Human Rights Monitoring at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The event also featured presentations by Elisabeth Duban, an independent expert on gender issues from the United Kingdom, and the Council of Europe HELP project team.
This fully tutored online course spanning four weeks, aims to provide law enforcement officers with both theoretical and practical materials related to violence against women. The course intends to raise awareness amongst participants about the many forms of violence and its impact on victims and society as a whole. Participants will also discuss how to respond quickly and effectively to cases of violence against women and domestic violence. The course covers techniques for interviewing victims and perpetrators, as well as practical steps for first responders and investigators. To ensure its relevance to the current Ukrainian context, the online course was tailored with a focus on the full-scale war in Ukraine and conflict-related violence against women, including conflict related sexual violence. It includes updated information on recent changes in Ukrainian legislation, links to reference documents and legal acts, as well as best practices and real-life cases that can be applied by Ukrainian Police officers today. Two Council of Europe national experts, Olha Poiedynok, PhD, and Georii Popov, PhD, provided support in the development of the course.
The event was organised as part of the Council of Europe project “Combating violence against women in Ukraine – Phase II” (COVAW-II)
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