Despite the challenges of war, Ukrainians do not silence violence, and the state continues to develop mechanisms of counteraction — Kateryna Pavlichenko
Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Kateryna Pavlichenko said about this today during a panel discussion at the Ukraine-Ukrinform Media Center. Together with the Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Oksana Zholnovych, Deputy Representative of UNFPA in Ukraine Pavel Zamostian, Representative of the Office of the Ombudsman Elena Vychor and Deputy Marina Bardina, the participants discussed the impact of the war on Ukrainians. On November 25, the world action “16 Days of Activism was launched. against violence.”
Every year Ukraine joins this movement, because it has a well-developed system for preventing and countering violence. But this year, these 16 days for Ukrainians are another reason to remind the world of the total Russian violence, in which we have been living for 9 months.
“Despite all the challenges of war, Ukrainians do not silence violence, and the state does not stop in developing mechanisms of counteraction and response. An important step was the ratification by Ukraine of the Istanbul Convention, which entered into force in November. The norms of the Convention are already being implemented in the national legislation,” said Kateryna Pavlichenko during the speech. The Deputy Minister stressed that among the more than 45 thousand war crimes of the Russian Federation, sexual violence committed by the occupiers
against women and underage girls is often found. chat rooms and older women. So far, the police have launched 46 criminal proceedings on such facts. It is important to understand that this figure does not reflect the full picture, because in one proceeding there may be several facts, several victims. In addition, in addition to the police, sexual crimes are recorded by other law enforcement officers.
She also spoke about new trends in the fight against domestic and gender-based violence. If since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in Ukraine there has been a sharp decline in domestic violence appeals, now the police are recording a significant increase in the number of claims and reports. Thus, in the first six months of 2022, the number of appeals decreased by almost 50% compared to the same period in 2021, and today this figure has decreased to 24%.
Ekaterina Pavlichenko reported that for 10 months of 2022, law enforcement officers received more than 200 thousand appeals for offenses related to domestic violence. At the same time, in some regions, statistics are increasing. According to her, this means that people are not silent, intolerant and willing to fight.
“Ukrainians and Ukrainians will never allow violence to become the norm. We will eradicate this shameful phenomenon, which is not inherent in our society. Because we are not them!”, - stressed the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
