Projects by four Ukrainian civil society organisations have been successfully completed in October 2022, focused on protecting and promoting women’s human rights during the war in Ukraine, with financial support from the Council of Europe.  

• The Ukrainian women lawyers’ association “JurFem” contributed to improving the response to cases of domestic violence in wartime, and raised awareness about current problems in this area among professionals and the general population in Ukraine. JurFem collected data regarding the perpetration of domestic violence in Ukraine in the first half of 2022 and identified trends on the impact of the war on protection of victims of domestic violence in Ukraine. Based on the results, JurFem developed recommendations for state authorities to improve their response to cases of domestic violence.
• La Strada-Ukraine held an information campaign on combatting violence against women in social media, which reached more than 7,000 people throughout Ukraine. La Strada produced 3,000 information cards for victims of violence against women and held 3 online discussions on protection and prevention of violence against women for prosecutors, police officers, judges, lawyers, social workers, and representatives of public organisations. La Strada also developed a study on the response to violence against women under martial law in Ukraine.
• Centre of Women's Perspectives focused on supporting internally displaced persons (IDPs), by conducting two training programs aimed at ensuring proper response to cases of domestic violence, particular in shelters housing IDPs. Participants were trained to work with traumatised victims in crisis situations. 56 coordinators, social service workers and volunteers took part in the trainings, representing five IDP shelters in Lviv and Drogobych, as well as in the Lviv region.
• From the first days of the war, the team of the NGO the Public Movement “Faith, Hope, Love” focused on urgent needs. They worked to share information and  increase awareness of human trafficking among women on the move in a border area, and informed IDPs and the general public how to register domestic violence cases. Social, psychological and legal support was provided to more than 1000 internally displaced women, children and men in the Odesa region.

Grants supporting the crucial work of these women’s rights organisations were provided under the Council of Europe project “Combatting Violence against Women in Ukraine” (COVAW).

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