OSCE Special Monitoring Mission and OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine stress link between women’s security and participation

Women need to be safe in public, the workplace and at home so they can unfold their full potential and actively contribute to political and socio-economic development, said Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine Ertugrul Apakan and Senior Project Officer of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine Jeff Erlich on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, 25 November 2018.

Gender-based violence takes many forms and cuts across all geographical and cultural boundaries. Apakan and Erlich stressed the OSCE’s commitment and contribution to effectively tackle violence against women in the OSCE region.

“As Ukraine greatly expands criminal liability for physical, psychological and economic domestic violence, we work to ensure stakeholders are ready to act in line with new legislation,” said Erlich. “We hope our support for increasing government efforts in this sphere will contribute to a safer life for all Ukrainian women and men.”

Discrimination and violence against women and girls, they said, is fundamentally a human rights issue, which is why both the OSCE SMM and OSCE PCU are actively engaged in the global 16 Days Campaign to End Gender-Based Violence, leading to the International Human Rights Day, 10 December.

“Based on the Helsinki Final Act’s comprehensive definition of security, in which individual equality plays its part, gender-based violence and inequality, like any human rights abuse, must be eliminated,” said Apakan. “Security for all requires the involvement and engagement of all, both women and men.”