The Project closing event took place in Kyiv on 12 July. In view of the end of the project in August 2016, it provided the opportunity to discuss the results achieved by the project and hand them over to the Ukrainian authorities.

In the opening session, remarks were made by Serhii Ustimenko, Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine, Christina Danielsson, representing the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA), Gianluca Esposito, Head of the Council of Europe Department on Equality and Human Dignity, and Mårten Ehnberg, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine. All of them praised the the project for its results and its support to the Ukrainian authorities in the process towards the ratification of the Istanbul Convention.

In the presence of high-level representatives of the Ukrainian Government and Parliament, the national and international experts involved in the project activities presented the project results together with the project team. There was general consensus to say that the project led to very positive and concrete results in the areas of: 1. Legislation: drafting of legislative amendments in various fields of law, on the basis of the project legislative review report; 2. Data collection: approval of recommended minimum requirements by the Inter-Agency Working Group on data collection; 3. Multi-agency co-operation: proposal of a model protocol for a co-ordinated response at local/regional level.

On the occasion of this event, prizes were given to the winners of the Ukrainian competition for the best children’s painting “home under the rainbow” 2016 and to the winners of the Journalist competition for the best written material on the topic of violence against women and domestic violence.

At the end of the event, Iryna Lutsenko, member of parliament, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Social Policy and the Ombudsperson’s Office committed to advancing further the political agenda for combating violence against women and domestic violence and were convinced that the Istanbul Convention will be ratified by Ukraine very soon.

After the closing event, the Steering Committee held its last meeting.