On 16 November 2023, Strategic session on needs, challenges and appropriate support measures to ensure gender-balanced participation and representation of women and men in public and political, including electoral, processes in Ukraine in post-war period was held by the Central Election Commission of Ukraine in cooperation and with the support of the Council of Europe*.

The Strategic Session gathered members of the Central Election Commission and representatives of its Secretariat, representatives of the Office of Government Commissioner for Gender Policy, Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, civil society organisations, international partners, as well as representatives of political parties.

During the event, the Council of Europe experts presented the results of the needs assessment and expert survey report on “Gender equality, balanced political participation and representation of women and men in post-war public and political processes in Ukraine: challenges and perspectives”, conducted by the Council of Europe as part of its response to the consequences of the full-scale war and provision of necessary support to Ukrainian society to overcome previously existing and newly emerged challenges.

Based on the results of the presented research, the participants – in the format of discussions and group work – intensively deliberated on outlining a complete picture of existing problems and challenges for gender equality in public and political processes in Ukraine in post-war period and identifying mechanisms, ways and partnerships to address such challenges.

*The Strategic session was organised within the framework and with the support of the Council of Europe project “Supporting democratic post-war elections in Ukraine”, implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” 2023 – 2026.