23/06/2011 Equality and Non-Discrimination
“The status of women and gender equality are regressing significantly in Ukraine and have been doing so for several months”, said Olena Bondarenko (Ukraine, EPP/CD) today at a hearing on the situation of women in Ukraine held following a motion for a resolution presented by Viola von Cramon-Taubadel (Germany, SOC). “Political leaders are making more and more sexist comments in public about women and the media are constantly conveying stereotypes that degrade the image of women”, she added.
Women are particularly exposed to discrimination in the employment sector, where very few of them are represented in decision-making bodies. For equal work, they earn 70% of what men do. In addition, Ms Bondarenko condemned the fact that efforts to combat discrimination through the courts were not very successful. Moreover, in the context of the amendment of the country’s electoral legislation, the proposal to introduce quotas had not been adopted.
Katerina Levchenko, lawyer and head of the La Strada NGO in Ukraine, also believes the situation to be worrying. She notes growing violations of women’s rights and glaring gender inequalities. In particular, she regrets the fact that there is no specialised body in charge of combating trafficking in human beings and that the authorities are not allocating sufficient funding to tackle the problem. Moreover, the authorities have reduced their support for NGOs and even stopped supporting various women’s projects. Access by women to certain jobs – admission to the police, for instance – is now being refused.
Refuting these criticisms, Ivan Popescu (Ukraine, SOC), Chair of the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE, mentioned the legislation guaranteeing gender equality in force in Ukraine. He also referred to the planned changes in legislation, in particular in the areas of preventing human trafficking and domestic violence and promoting equal opportunities for women and men.
Ukraine has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings but has not ratified the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.