16 days of activism against gender-based violence

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator joins the global campaign “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence” that runs from 25 November to 10 December every year.

To support this UN initiative the Project Co-ordinator launches the public awareness raising campaign with the focus on domestic violence. The contribution by the Co-ordinator’s 2020 campaign in Ukraine is based on promoting the slogan ‘Mind the closing door’. This is due to the fact that COVID-19 pandemic is accompanied by lockdown-related restrictions, financial challenges and higher stress levels, which significantly increase the risk of domestic violence. Also it is more difficult for victims in such circumstances to reach out for help.

The main symbols of the Co-ordinator’s campaign are the orange ribbon and the message in Ukrainian ‘I stand against domestic violence’. Anyone wishing to support the campaign and join this global initiative can use the campaign Facebook frame by searching it with the keywords (насильство/violence/жорстокість).

The Project Co-ordinator will develop and publish information materials on its FB page, share the resources it has developed to help a wide range of experts of public and civil society sectors, as well as general public in their efforts to tackle this problem.

Furthermore, before the campaign launch the OSCE Project Co-ordinator organized a pilot press-tour on preventing and combating domestic violence for Ukrainian media representatives and influencers. The experts, social workers, employees of the support services, National Hotlines, the Patrol Police Academy and psychologists shared with the participants the most recent statistics on the number of calls on domestic violence cases, the information about specialised police training programmes, the methods of working with victims, witnesses and abusers, as well as of the prevention programmes for such a phenomenon.

Background information

For a number of years now, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine jointly with the National Police, educational establishments of the Ministry of Interior, namely the Patrol Police Academy in Kyiv, and the 102 Call Service, takes part in the development and implementation of the programmes for domestic violence abusers, supporting the systematic approach to the enforcement of the Law of Ukraine on Prevention and Combating of Domestic Violence.

Journalists may send their inquiries for additional information to:

Andrii Dziubenko, Communication Officer, Mob.: +380 67 239 39 51 | Mob.: +380 50 676 77 34 | andrii.dziubenko@osce.org