OSCE helps to strengthen the ability of Ukraine’s Free Legal Aid system to provide assistance to survivors of gender-based violence in times of war

Ensuring gender-sensitive education of staff working in Ukraine’s system of free legal aid will enhance quality of assistance provided to survivors of gender-based violence, including related to the ongoing war. These are some of the recommendations, elaborated with the assistance of the OSCE Secretariat Extra-Budgetary Support Programme for Ukraine (SPU), based on the assessment of documents, policies and practices used by members of the Free Legal Aid system.

Better access to legal services for those who suffer from gender-based violence is key, as many cases go unreported, with no justice served and perpetrators avoiding due punishment. The survivors tend to avoid reporting what happened to them due to various reasons - shame, fear, and not knowing where they can turn for help and how they can protect their rights. In times of war, the problem is especially acute, as was identified by the OSCE-led Survey on Safety and Well-Being of Women, a multi-country research conducted in 2019. Also, a recent ODIHR research gathered evidence of torture and sexual violence in the course of the ongoing war against Ukraine.      

Survivors of sexual violence and other forms of gender-based violence are entitled to a number of legal services, including representation of interests in courts, other state bodies, local self-government bodies, and in relations with other persons. The Free Legal Aid system of Ukraine (FLA) ensures the provision of the mentioned services and helps to draft claims and other documents in criminal proceedings initiated due to the commission of such criminal offenses. The FLA system is a network of 107 centres providing legal assistance with funding from public and private sources.

To help the system improve its response to gender-based violence, the SPU conducted a gender analysis of the policies and procedures to assess their compliance with the principles of gender equality and gender mainstreaming; the analysis of the following resources was performed: policies, programmes, communication materials, acts, documentation, etc. In addition, data on training on gender issues for FLA staff was gathered.

The study, while recognizing overall compliance of the system with gender mainstreaming requirements, proposed special recommendations that will help the FLA system to improve its activities in this sphere. Specific recommendations, in addition to more training efforts for staff and employees, include providing the clients a possibility to select the gender of a representative they wish to interact with, as well as the need to change the terminology in documents and procedures, including replacement of the word “victim” with the term ”survivor” to avoid victimization of those who suffered from gender-based violence.

The SPU also plans to deliver training for the management of the FLA system on issues of gender analysis and gender-based violence in November this year.