UNDP in Ukraine

Domestiс Violence in Ukraine: figures and facts (According to Donetsk Regional League of Business and Professional Women)
• 35-50% of all Ukrainian women stayed at in-patient departments with bodily injuries and were victims of domestic violence.
• Every year domestic violence in Ukraine causes 100,000 days of stay at in-patient departments, 30 000 trauma unit cases and 40,000 doctor summons
• 30-40% of all calls to police departments are linked with domestic violence, in particular physical violence.

The new PSAs touch upon two scenes. One of them is a woman with a bracelet-shaped bruise with the slogan saying: "It's enough of bearing such gifts".

Another scene shows Alina Shaternikova, a worldwide-known Ukrainian boxer, world and European champion, with a bruise round her eye with the slogan saying: "I put up with pain for the sake of victory. And you?"

Shaternikova says that she agreed to participate in this public information campaign because mere official statistics on family violence are terrifying: "Today thousands of women suffer from physical violence in their families. Placing these social ads we tried to say that bruises are tolerable in sports, particularly in box, but they are inadmissible in families".

The Minister of Ukraine for Family, Sports and Youth Yuriy Pavlenko announced that on the 14th of May, 2008, the Ministry launched the National Campaign "Stop Violence!" to back the international campaign initiated by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

According to the Minister, efficient measures to prevent and combat violence are developed and introduced under the Campaign.

Particularly, a programme to deal with offenders is being developed, since Ukraine has tried only to protect victims until recently with no activities aimed at offenders in place. The issue of violence will be included into syllabi of all educational institutions for officers of court and law enforcement bodies, medical personnel, social workers, teachers and others. In the Minister's opinion, it is vital to raise public awareness on family violence using all available tools, in particular mass-media and educational campaigns.

Yuriy Pavlenko informed that in pursuance of the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine central executive bodies submitted their proposals on the Action Plan under the National Campaign "Stop Violence!".

As of now, submitted proposals have been summarized and, after clearance with central executive bodies, the Action Plan on the National Campaign "Stop Violence!" will be filed with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for final decision-making.

A member to the National Network of Men-Leaders against Violence, an Olympic silver swimming champion, the President of the Fund to Support Youth and Olympic Swimming Denys Silantyev believes that origins of violent behavior should be sought for in upbringing and, therefore, it is of high importance not to "loose" children of today.

"As the President of the Fund to Support Youth and Olympic Swimming I deal with young swimmers. We devote a lot of our attention to both physical training and rearing Olympic ideals in young people. And Olympic ideals are based on decency, mutual respect and NON-violence," Denis Silantyev said. The Olympic prize winner hopes that Ukrainian parents will set a good example for their own children.

The General Director of the Advertising Agency "Tabasco" and the curator of the Social Advertisement Exchange Olexandr Gorlov noted: "We willingly agreed and engaged in this project on a pro bono basis, as we wanted to show the readiness of the whole advertising sector to assist the society in tackling social problems".

Larysa Kobelianska, a coordinator at the Equal Opportunities and Women's Rights in Ukraine Program (a joint project of UN Development Program, European Commission in Ukraine, Swedish International Development Agency), thanked all those who got concerned in problems of Ukrainian families.

Larysa Kobelianska informed that a great role is played by the private sector, as TABASCO Creative Agency developed the campaign concept free-of-charge, the Association of Outdoor Advertisement assisted in free placement of the social ads "Stop Violence!", while the Agency for Digital Marketing fostered banners "Stop Violence!" on the web. By the way, the campaign is also supported by such powerful media as TSN (TV channel "1+1" informational web-site), the web-site Odnoklassniki.UA (a localized version of the well-known social network "Facebook") and others".

Background information:
In 2008 the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon launched the worldwide campaign to end violence against women until 2015 "UNiTE to End Violence against Women".

In line with the campaign, the Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Sports and Youth set off the national campaign to combat violence against women and children, family violence "Stop Violence!" in Ukraine.

The same year the National Forum "Stop Violence!" was held and approved the National Action Platform and the Action Plan on its implementation. The participants raised the issue of the development, approval and implementation of minimum standards of services for those suffered from violence.

In 2009 on the eve of the International Women's Day Ukrainian men united to set up the National Network of Men-Leaders against Violence.

The Campaign is supported, in particular, by UN Development Program, European Commission in Ukraine, Swedish International Development Agency, International Women Rights Center "La Strada which operates the "hot line", International NGO "School of Equal Opportunities", International Humanitarian Center "Rozrada", International Organization of Jewish Women "Project Kesher", All-Ukrainian Public Center "Volunteer", Informational and Consultancy Women Center.