Violence against women in Ukraine

According to the compilers of the American Encyclopedia of Human Rights, the situation with women's rights in Ukraine remains an unresolved issue. Without going into it, in particular, it was noted that women are discriminated against in many areas of social life, their earnings are underestimated, and the chance of getting professional advancement is not as high as that of men. The issue of violence against Ukrainian women, as well as the spread of domestic violence in a situation where the Ukrainian police evade interference in family conflicts, is very relevant. The problem of sexual exploitation of women who are illegally exported to Western Europe and the Middle East for forced labor in the field of prostitution is acute (see prostitution in Ukraine ). Among the main reasons for this situation is the high level of poverty of the Ukrainian population ^[1] . According to UN experts , gender inequality in Ukraine is systemic in nature and is associated with a patriarchal culture and stereotypes deeply rooted in the minds of ordinary people. The reforms being carried out in the country pay little attention to this problem, which predetermines the low level of involvement of Ukrainian women in political and public activities, their constant discrimination and violations of their rights ^[2] .

In 2015, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed deep concern about the increasing level of violence directed against women in Ukraine and published a special review report. As the collected data indicate, in connection with the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, women have become a particularly vulnerable part of society ^[3] . According to the international organization of the OSCE, every year, nationwide, violence against women takes three times more lives than fighting ^[4] .

It so happened historically that the specifics of violence against women is surrounded by silence, and the depth of this problem is quantitatively described in only a few sources of official statistics. As a result, in Ukraine there are no methods for involving the public in order to stop excesses of violence against women, the media do not have clearly formulated approaches to this problem, and law enforcement agencies are helpless in processing its specific manifestations ^[5] .

As a result of this situation in Ukraine, the main funding and support for the movement against violence against women went to foreign organizations such as the United States Agency for International Development ( USAID ) and the International Renaissance Foundation (funded by George Soros ). In addition to them, significant efforts were made in the framework of the UN Development Program ( UNDP ) ^[6] .

Violence against women includes manifestations of sheer physical violence using brute force only as a small part of it. In addition, violence against women also refers to various types of coercion and illegal deprivation of freedom of women in their public or private life ^[5] .

Obviously, the root of the problem of violence against women is the difficult economic situation in the country (see Ukraine's economy ), where about 80% of the population lives below the poverty line, pensioners receive about fifteen US dollars a month from the state, and four to ten people with disabilities. In conditions of environmental poverty, Ukrainian women are an easy victim of both physical and psychological violence. Moreover, due to social traditions and personal shame of the victims, the recorded indicators are nothing more than a small fraction of real numbers ^[7] .

Domestic Violence

A widespread form of violence against women is domestic violence , which is alarming in its growing dynamics, especially among young families. One in five Ukrainian women surveyed believes that this type of violence is “very frequent,” with at least 20% of Ukrainian women under the age of 28 becoming victims of violence in their homes, and about 2% being targeted. This state of affairs is often associated with ongoing changes in the social structure, which affect Ukrainian families. However, it turns out to be a myth to test, since domestic violence in Ukraine has an ancient history, and traditions of aggressive attitude towards a woman are inherited from father to son. Moreover, the adoption of violence as part of family life in Ukraine can be described as an entrenched social problem generated by stereotypical images of a man and a woman, in which marriage gives a man the right to own a woman. Moreover, the situation is aggravated by the imperfection of Ukrainian legislation, where rape in marriage is not even considered a crime, and also - the reluctance of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies to intervene in family conflicts ^[8] .

Violence against children

The crumbling economy of Ukraine has created an environment in which youth violence and violence against children flourish. Their parents, being busy looking for money, are forced to neglect the traditional family functions of raising and educating their descendants. The collapsing budgets of funds allocated by the state for education indicate that the school system in Ukraine is in decline, and the number of institutions of extracurricular education of children has dropped to a minimum. This leads to the emergence of antisocial teenage groups, an increase in the number of dropouts and an increase in youth crime. In addition to this, there is an increase in child addiction and alcoholism . For example, among Ukrainian fifth graders (age 10 years), about 17% drink alcohol, among eighth graders (13 years old) about 25%, among eleventh graders (16 years old) about half. Each year, about 8,000–9,000 adolescents run away from their families and become street children. Being caught, they replenish themselves with orphanages, which for them become the threshold of getting into jail ^[9] .

UNESCO studies have shown that in Ukraine, the sex ratio for street teens is one girl per two boys. Among the main risks that threaten their health are alcoholism, drug addiction and prostitution (see prostitution in Ukraine ). In addition to them, sexually transmitted diseases show a general upward trend in this environment, for example, over the past five years, the number of Ukrainian girls aged 15 to 17 years who have suffered from these diseases has increased from 106 to 1720. Moreover, 10 cases of diseases related to girls under the age of 14, and most carriers of infections did not work and did not study ^[9] .

The All-Ukrainian Committee for the Protection of Childhood noted that one in three Ukrainian girls under the age of 18 was ever sexually assaulted, one in five was sexually assaulted, and one in ten was raped. At the same time, young girls make up a significant proportion of victims in the general list of victims of sexual violence in Ukraine. For example, 55% of rape victims were under the age of 18, and 22% were actually children under the age of 14. In 30% of cases, the victims knew their abuser well, and in 13% of cases they were subjected to violence by a relative or guardian ^[10] .

Sexual abuse

The problem of sexual violence in Ukraine is very acute, at least 50% of Ukrainian women were victims of sexual harassment and about 8% of Ukrainians experienced it on themselves many times. In some circumstances, the victims were forced to leave their jobs, adding economic hardship to the postponed sexual humiliation. At the same time, Ukrainian legislation does not contain articles that suppress sexual harassment in the workplace ^[11] .

Workplace discrimination

According to a number of research works in Ukraine, there is a marginalization of the female part of society, most of which is excluded from public life by the discriminatory policies of the ruling parties, governments and individual employers. Despite the fact that women make up at least 54% of the population of Ukraine and 45% of its work resources, the unemployment rate among women is much higher than among men with an equivalent level of education. For example, 80% of unemployed in Ukraine are female, and these figures will not include data on hidden unemployment ^[12] .

Every fifth Ukrainian woman and every sixth man has ever witnessed discrimination against women in hiring, 22% of women and 15% of men have witnessed discrimination against women when receiving a job promotion. Discrimination is also commonplace in job advertisements, where sex, age and external data may be explicitly stated, despite the fact that this is a direct violation of the code of labor laws ^[11] . The average salary for women also tends to be much lower than the earnings of men of similar qualifications. For example: according to the UN data for 1993, in the energy sector, the average income of a working woman was approximately 45% of the income of a man, and in the Ukrainian light industry this value did not exceed 90% ^[13] .

Sexual exploitation

In Ukraine, forced prostitution and the sale of live goods in international markets (see human trafficking in Ukraine ) remain poorly studied issues due to a lack of statistics. However, unofficial data collected by law enforcement agencies, social services and through a study of Ukrainian society indicate an explosive increase in the volumes of the first and second. As a rule, the rapid spread of prostitution in Ukraine is associated with impoverishment of the population, a shift in the life priorities of society from moral to material values, the widespread use of light pornography in the media to capture the attention of consumers, etc. ^[14] The main driving motive that forces young women to agree to prostitution or leaving the country, is considered a high level of unemployment, which in young people can reach at least 40%. The large-scale closure of many state-owned enterprises in Ukraine hit primarily Ukrainian women, not only economically, but also psychologically. In such circumstances, the search for regular work outside big cities is a task associated with significant difficulties with the prospects for obtaining, at best, very low earnings ^[15] .

In connection with the fighting in eastern Ukraine, the international organization K4D ( English Knowledge, evidence and learning for development ) published a report in which it expressed concern about the increasing level of gender arbitrariness in Ukrainian territories. According to the authors of the report, none of the warring parties uses gender-based violence systematically as a military tool to achieve the tactical or strategic goals of the war, but numerous cases of gender-based violence have been reported, both in the form of unverified allegations and in the form of documented facts ^[16] .

For example, according to the UN, the greatest risk of experiencing sexual violence are people who are captured by the SBU or who fell into the Ukrainian volunteer battalions. In such situations, sexual violence is most often used against men in order to humiliate, punish, extort confessions or seize property of victims (see torture in Ukraine ). For women, the very fact of being on the line of military contact of the parties is accompanied by “significant risks” due to the high concentration of military forces, poor compliance with laws and impunity for criminals. This leads many women and girls to resort to sex for survival , which entails long-term psychological and somatic consequences ^[17] .

Human trafficking is endemic to Ukraine, but during the course of hostilities the situation in this area only worsened. Since the beginning of 2015, the export of women has risen sharply, which reversed the trend of the past, when most of the “live goods” were men who were used for forced labor both in Ukraine, and in Russia, Poland, Turkey, the USA and other countries ^{[18 ]} .

Shortly before the start of the conflict, the number of Ukrainians living below the poverty line gradually decreased, with the male poverty rate being higher than the female poverty rate. However, by October 2016, the Ukrainian government officially registered 1.7 million (the real figure could be much larger) internally displaced persons, 66% of whom are women. In addition to them, about one and a half million Ukrainians left for neighboring countries, and a large number of young men left the country in order to avoid forced mobilization. As a result, many households in Ukraine began to be headed by women and dependent on remittances from Russia, where their husbands work. As a result of the weakening of the Russian economy, sanctions and the collapse of the ruble, changes sweeping across Ukraine hit primarily this part of the population. In addition to the inevitable destruction of the country's infrastructure and the forced displacement of large masses of people, a significant number of men were lost during fierce battles, which led to a further increase in the share of female-headed households ^[19] .

• Gender Inequality in Ukraine
• Xenophobia in Ukraine
• Human rights in Ukraine
• I'm afraid to say

• A. Hrycak. Global Campaigns to Combat Violence against Women: Theorizing Their Impact in Post-Communist Ukraine // Gender, Politics and Society in Ukraine / O. Hankivsky, A. Salnykova. - Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 2012 .-- ISBN 978-1-14426-4064 -1.
• L. Kobelyanska. Violence and Trafficking in Women in Ukraine // Making the Transition Work for Women in Europe and Central Asia, Parts 63-411 / M. Lazreg. - World Bank Publications, 2000. - P. 76. - 113 p. - (Social Science).
• B. Lucas, B. Rohwerder, K. Tull. Gender and conflict in Ukraine . - K4D Helpdesk Report, 2017.
• S. Pavlychko. Progress on hold: the conservative faces of women in Ukraine // Post-Soviet Women: From the Baltic to Central Asia / Mary Buckley. - Cambridge University Press, 1997 .-- P. 316. - (History). - ISBN 0-521-56320-8 .
• O. Pyshchulina. An Evaluation of Ukrainian Legislation to Counter and Criminalize Human Trafficking // Human Traffic and Transnational Crime: Eurasian and American Perspectives / Sally W. Stoecker, Louise I. Shelley. - Rowman & Littlefiled Publishers, Inc., 2005. - P. 115-124. - 161 p. - (Social Science). - ISBN 0-7425-3029-9 .
• C. Skutsch. Ukraine // The Human Rights Encyclopedia / J. Lewis, C. Skutsch. - Sharpe Reference, 2001. - Vol. 2. - P. 547-549. - ISBN 0-7656-8023-8 .

• MFI: violence against women has become the norm in Ukraine
• Domestic Violence in Ukraine
• OHCHR publishes alarming report on increased violence against women in Ukraine