Report on the activity of the Women's Consortium of Ukraine in 2007-2011

2007-2011

Annual Report of the Organization

Contacts: Tel: +38-044-592-68-54 Fax: +38.044.279.00.26 E-mail: info@wcu-network.org.ua Web-sites: www.wcu-network.org.ua www.gendermap.org.ua

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011

CONTENTльність Mission and Vision Letter of address Background information Who we are Our Achievements Equal Rights and Opportunities Programs Prevention of Violence Against Children. Children Rights Activities of the Network “Women’s consortium of Ukraine” Publications and Videos International Participation & Cooperation Our Grantors and Donors Statement of Grants Received and Expenses Member organizations. Board. Management. Advisors

2

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011

Our Mission: Women’s Consortium of Ukraine is the union established by women’s nongovernmental organizations to ensure equal rights and opportunities of women and men & well-being of children in Ukraine

Our Purpose: Is gender and children rights problems solution by means of advocacy and effective cooperation between governmental and non-governmental organizations and broad involvement of local communities and organizations

Our Values: Equal rights – the world consists of women and men and only together can they create positive change. We pay equal attention to the issues of both sexes.

Respect for differences - we respect different opinions, views, special needs, and build cooperation with tolerance and respect of the national, religious & sexual orientation of our clients. These values are shared by our partners.

Cooperation and responsible partnership - we ensure that the members of our Network have equal access to all of our initiatives and resources.

Openness and transparency - we inform as widely as possible about our activities, initiatives, partners, funding sources and cost-effectiveness.

Qualification and complexity - we constantly strive to improve our own skills through further education and collaborate with experts in different fields to provide solutions to the complex problems we encounter.

Our Tools: Consolidating efforts of non-governmental organizations and facilitating exchange of good practices between them; Analyses of priority problems at local and national level; Public discussions of urgent issues; Development of public participation in on-going social and human rights processes; Training for capacity building of governmental and non-governmental organizations and improving cooperation between them; Development and piloting of hand-on models aimed to address important social and human rights issues; Support for implementation of national and local action plans aimed to protect women and children; Monitoring the national and local policies on equal rights and opportunities of women, men & improve the situation of children in Ukraine

3

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011

Dear Partners and Friends!

This year Women’s Consortium of Ukraine has become 10 year old. Our first anniversary we celebrated by creating a new strategy that outlined the priority areas for the next three years: • Access of women to the decision making and control over resources.

• Equal rights and opportunities of women and men in social and economical areas.

• Prevention of gender violence.

• Promotion of gender culture.

At the same time, the general priorities of the Women’s Consortium of Ukraine remained unchanged – those are achieving of equal rights and opportunities and women and men and protection of children rights.

You can learn on what we do in order to achieve our goals as well as about our successes in the fourth annual report. In this publication we also, as always, reported on who are our supporters and on how we manage our funds.

I hope that with the help of our professionalism and openness, which we express among other by doing this annual reporting, we will step by step gain more trust of people towards what we do and to the non-governmental organizations in general.

Thank you all who contribute to this endeavour!

Maria Alekseyenko Chair of the Women’s Consortium of Ukraine

4

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011 Active development of women’s non-governmental organizations in Ukraine commenced in the late 1990’s in response to the time of economic recession and outbursts of social problems in society. The necessity of creating National policies to improve the situation of women and their implementation at the local level, had become a major issue.

Thanks to international recognition of the issue and their generous support, opportunities for capacity building of women’s organizations were created for delivery of better services, advocacy and awareness.

Many National and local organizations were established to address these urgent issues for women and their conditions.

A further requirement of information exchange and establishing best practices, as well as of coordinated efforts towards common goals, stimulated establishment of NGO networks.

As a result, Women’s Consortium of Ukraine was founded in summer 2001.

Background Negative consequences of transformation of the Ukrainian economy from a centralized state-controlled economy to a market economy resulted in setbacks in manufacturing production, salary decreases and delays, rising unemployment, reduction of social programs, loss of social services, pre-school and other education programs, cultural and sports facilities. These adversely effected the social and working conditions for women.

These factors resulted in deepening of such problems as domestic violence and human trafficking.

Domestic violence - despite being a widespread problem in Ukraine, professionals in the criminal justice system did not treat it as a serious crime. The stereotype that violence at home is an exclusively home affair, prevented women from coming forward with complaints. The Ukrainian government had not met its obligations to protect women from violence and to ensure that victims of violence were provided with health and social services together with facilities, programs and other support structures to promote their safety and rehabilitation. Those women who seek assistance failed to receive it often because of the lack of rehabilitation centers and shelters.

Trafficking of women into the commercial sex industry in the 1990s became a serious and increasing problem in Ukraine. It is a complicated phenomenon with many forces impacting a woman’s decisions to work abroad. Perhaps the strongest factor was the desperate economic situation impacting availability of satisfactory local employment. The laws did not provide adequate mechanisms to prosecute traffickers nor did they provide adequate protections or remedies for victims.

The Ukrainian government has now created a Program for Prevention of Trafficking in Humans, but has not yet dedicated sufficient resources to effectively implement it. Nongovernmental organizations are being created to meet the needs of victims, but the demand is much too high for their limited resources. The combined efforts of the State and nongovernmental organizations are required to address the problem effectively.

Participation of women in decision making Despite increases in the establishment of women’s non-governmental organizations, and participation of women in business, the management structure is still male dominated and does not reflect equality in the work place.

Who we are Women’s Consortium of Ukraine is a Non-Governmental Organization acting as a coordinator for advocacy, training and awareness focusing on: prevention of domestic violence towards women and children, the elimination of human trafficking in women and children and equal rights and opportunities for women.

Today, Women’s Consortium coordinates a member network of 32 non-governmental organizations in all regions of Ukraine. These are local and regional organizations that support the following priority issues: • Domestic violence toward women and children

5

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011 • • •

Trafficking in humans, especially women and children Equal rights and opportunities for women in decision making Gender stereotyping

Our achievements: Increasing influence of NGOs in decision making The use of international instruments for lobbying positive changes in gender policy UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women took into account views of the network "Women's Consortium of Ukraine", set in an alternate report on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and expressed during the dialogue with the experts of the Committee. As a result, concluding observations and recommendations of this Committee, approved in February 2010, reflected the problems and challenges that meet the vision of nongovernmental organizations that work at the regional level in Ukraine.

The influence on the decision-making Since 2010 the WCU has drawn attention to the needs of ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse CETS No.: 201. By now thanks to the efforts of international and Ukrainian organization this document was ratified.

Since 2006 the WCU stressed upon the need of establishing the Child Ombudsperson. Now the persons responsible for children rights – under the President (since August 2011) and under Human Rights Commissioner (since July 2010). At the same time it is necessary to make further advocacy efforts since neither of these positions meets international standards.

The influence on the decisions of executive power February 1, 2010 Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine issued a Decree number 59 of the measures taken to prevent violence against children. The Decree was approved in response to an analysis of the problem of violence between children at school, conducted by the Women's consortium of Ukraine in 2009. The conclusions of the analysis, in particular, state that the school is a place where children are most often face various forms of violence and aggression.

Cooperation with the Parliament Women's Consortium of Ukraine has initiated the establishment of the working group under the Parliamentary Committee for Family, Youth, Sports and Tourism for elaboration of legislative proposals to protect children from violence.

As a result of working group activity, the draft Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedural Codes of Ukraine» № 7340 (regarding interrogation procedures of juvenile victims and witnesses) was registered in the Parliament. The bill was introduced by MPs - representatives from all five political groups.

Joining efforts of non-governmental organizations Based on the lessons learned on cooperation in the process of reporting on implementation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child the Coalition of NGOs on Children Rights in Ukraine was established. The WCU is one of the initiating member of the Coalition, and considers it one of the strongest Coalition in the areas of children rights and interests in Ukraine.

6

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011 Training for caregivers on better services for children Developed a training manual on Organization of prevention of violence against children at school, which is used by the specialists from the institutes of post-graduate training for teachers in all regions of Ukraine.

Combating gender stereotypes in the advertising and mass media For more then three years long the WCU has been implementing awareness raising campaign on combating sexism and gender stereotypes in the advertising. As a result, in 2011 the standards of non-discriminatory gender-based advertising based were developed and approved. These standards should be considered by signatory parties when developing socially-responsible advertising.

Website of the Women's Consortium of Ukraine is the largest information resource on Gender Issues and Children Rights There are news published daily on the organisation’s web-site on various violations of children's rights and status of women and men in Ukraine and abroad. Every week in the section "Articles" appear an actual researches, popular discussions etc. This information In 2011: 750 news and articles on children WCU disseminates among NGOs and other rights and 850 news and articles on the rights stakeholders through Googlegroups mailing of the child and social networks of на Facebook, Twitter and Live Journal

7

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011

Equal Rights and Opportunities Program What is meant by equal rights and opportunities, or gender equality? That is a question that often has different meanings and interpretations! Our team believes that gender equality is equal opportunity for men and women to realize their human rights and, if they wish, to contribute to the political, economic, social and cultural development of their country, which in turn allows equal rights and opportunities to continue to grow!

In Ukraine, gender equality is still not perceived as an important and necessary component of progressive, democratic development or of the creation of comfortable, friendly lives for its citizens. There is a very low number of women represented in government offices (even though over half of Ukraine’s population is comprised of women), the division of family roles is imbalanced and as such women in Ukraine are twice or even three times as occupied, men are often left out of their children’s upbringing, gender asymmetry and imbalance exists in the labour market, where a clear stereotypical divide between “men’s” and “women’s” work deprives individuals of the right to freely choose their jobs and professions. The problem of domestic violence continues to have a hidden character, where the victim is left alone with their grief. These and other problems have their “gender roots”, which is why our organization’s activities aim to address gender equality and gender stereotypes -- so that important steps are made toward better lives for us all.

In order to achieve gender equality in Ukraine the Women’s Consortium maintain cooperation with women’s and gender-focused NGOs; follow-up with international and national obligations of Ukraine; fulfill awareness raising among public by producing documentaries, publications, messages in mass media; leading training work, etc.

In 2007 through 2011 the WCU has focused its efforts on following initiatives: Public Monitoring of State Program for Implementation Gender Equality in Ukrainian society till 2010 The public monitoring Public monitoring covers the level of implementation of State program for implementation gender equality in Ukrainian society, which had been implemented during 2006-2010 The document highlights achievements and challenges that accompanied the implementation of the Programme at national and local levels, summarizes conclusions and recommendations. The participants of the monitoring are 21 state institution (mainly, central-level executive bodies) and 23 oblast state administration and the administration of the city of Kyiv and Pervomaisk (Mykolaiv oblast). The results of the monitoring were presented and disseminated among governmental and non-governmental organizations responsible for implementation of the gender equality and/or facilitating this process.

Enhancing women skills for integrating in the labor market, 2010-2011

14 trainers for unemployed women were prepared; 31 unemployed women passed through the training course in Kyiv and Khmelnitskiy

Women's consortium of Ukraine has implemented a project aimed at raising awareness and education for women who want to open their own business and assist in rapid adaptation to new conditions in the labor market. Trainers of Women's consortium organized a training course for women who have difficulties in employment and who lost their jobs due to economic crisis and gender and age discrimination in the Ukrainian labor market. Training

8

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011 materials for short-term training for women who have decided to start their own business were developed and published in the end of the project.

Informing the State and public on a gender-balanced society Women's Consortium has created a Gender Map of Ukraine as a free Internet access tool. This will enable organizations, institutions, and funds to work more efficiently and effectively, towards establishment of gender equality directing efforts and resources where needed. The Gender map presents the gender-differentiated statistics for all regions of Ukraine according to established indicators.

Developing of national standards for gender non-discriminatory advertising Representatives of the Women's consortium of Ukraine have participated in the work of expert group on development and practical implementation of standards for advertising free of gender discrimination. Representatives of professional associations and advertising marketers, leaders and activists of gender organizations, scientists, researchers in the sphere of unethical advertising were involved in the work of expert group. The Women’s Consortium has become a member of the Industrial Committee aimed to consider complains, issuing expert conclusions and recommendations in cases of possible discrimination.

Conducting a series of regional discussion clubs “Stereotyped roles of men and women in advertisements” and “Creative advertising without sexism”, based on the “World Cafe” method, 2008-2010 Representatives of advertising agencies, associations, PR companies, journalists, magazine editors, academics, representatives of the National Expert Commission on protection of public morality and NGOs in Kyiv, Cherkassy, Poltava, Lutsk, Kherson, Kirovograd and Vinnitsa discussed criteria of sexism in advertising. This resulted in specific practical steps to be taken to overcome sexism and gender stereotypes in advertisements.

More then 400 professional participated Establishing partnership and cooperation with the representative of advertisement sphere on combating in the discussion clubs sexist and gender stereotyped advertisement. The Forum "Self-regulation in the advertising industry of Ukraine and approaches to solve the problem of gender discrimination" was organized, on which the experience of self-advertising industry was presented, involving national and international experts from the European Advertising Standards Alliance and World Federation of Advertisers. The publication Sexism in advertising: to overcome it through the self-regulation of the advertising industry». was prepared within the project.

The Alternative Report on Implementation of CEDAW Convention in Ukraine, 2008 In 2007 the Government of Ukraine submitted the 6th & 7th Joint Regular State Reports on the implementation of CEDAW to the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. More information to the State report was provided by the network "Women's Consortium of Ukraine".

Alternative report prepared by 22 civil society organizations, together with 6-th and 7-th joint periodic public reports were considered by the Committee of the UN in January 2010. With the participation of NGOs, including representatives of the Women's Consortium of Ukraine, the final recommendations of the UN Committee include an objective and practical information on what should be done to improve the situation of women in Ukraine.

Participation in the first meeting session of the PricewaterHouseCooper mentor’s club On May 13, 2011 representatives from the Women’s Consortium of Ukraine have participated in the first meeting of the Women’s Mentors’ Club at PricewaterHouseCooper and told about urgent problems of women in Ukraine and possibilities for their solution. The issue of balancing work and family life was the core subject of discussion.

Promoting the idea of responsible fatherhood, 2010 Women's Consortium of Ukraine became one of the organizers of the contest and exhibition "Happy daddy", which aimed to promote a positive perception of the man who is responsible and loving dad, to draw attention to the importance of fatherhood for men and to consolidate on a national level and promote the formation of opinions in society on the equal responsibility of both parents (father and mother) for the upbringing of their children. Photo exhibition lasted two weeks and hundreds of people were visiting it. This idea already replicated in the other regions of Ukraine.

9

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011 A series of training seminars for youth party affiliated organizations "Fundamentals of gender mainstreaming and equal democracy , 2009 Young boys and girls, representatives of youth party affiliated organizations, participated in the training seminars.

The main purpose of the training was identification and recognition of gender equality as a necessary condition for democratic change in the country and in the structure of political parties. During the seminar the following issues were discussed: fundamentals of gender equality, gender alphabet and regulatory framework of gender change, gender and electoral systems, gender quotas, male gender issues, political parties and gender politics.

Equal rights and opportunities for men and women in the process of decision making, networking of non-governmental organization 2006-2008 Women’s Consortium of Ukraine coordinated the Network of nongovernmental organizations of Ukraine that were working on following directions: • Training for women-candidates and women-deputies on planning and conducting pre-election campaigns, effective communication, public presentations, lobbing skills and problem solving at local levels.

• Training for elected female-state officials and female-leaders in the public sector to provide them with the skills and knowledge required for successful work in politics, state structures, public sector and local communities.

• Strengthening regional partnerships (between the NGOs and also between NGO’s and state structures).

• Analyzing and conducting monitoring of gender legislation at local levels.

Plans for the Future Cooperation with businesses in implementing standards of non-discriminatory advertising and principles of responsible marketing in Ukraine Our lessons learnt in combating sexism in advertising show that the most effective approach in this work should be based on building consciousness of advertisers and industries about the fact that effect of advertising towards the consumers and society in general could be negative. Therefore we’ll develop the cooperation with the stakeholders in developing internal regulatory mechanisms, e.g. relevant standards.

Women’s in Election Due to the problem of low representation of women in the government, the Women’s Consortium Network has decided to advocate for the women’s participation in the election as a key subject in 2012.

10

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011

Prevention of Violence Against Children Children Rights Since we believe that violence against children is impermissible, the priorities of the Women's Consortium of Ukraine include preventative work, promoting nonviolent values and distributing information. At the same time, it is also our task is to interrupt this cycle by improving the quality of services to children who have experienced violence.

Based on the fact that a child may suffer violence anywhere – at home, at school or on the street – the Women's Consortium of Ukraine enlists professionals from different industries. A special focus is on educators and professionals working in children's institutions and social services.

In order to determine the extent of the problem and the needs of the people involved, research is conducted by professionals. With the results of this research, we develop new or adapt existing prevention programs.

The Women's Consortium of Ukraine has developed courses on the social and psychological rehabilitation of children who have experienced abuse and In 2010-2011 158 training sessions were sexual abuse. Courses are designed for conducted for specialists from 20 schools in children's psychologists and social workers Vinnitsa, Kirovohrad, Kyiv and Cherkassy who work with children.

We also fulfill training for multidisciplinary groups of specialists from specific institutions to enhance their skills of responding and solving the situation of violence. The special attention is focused at effective help to children victims of violence based on individual plans of assistance.

regions. Children have received booklets on ways to respond to different forms of violence.

Totally, 1134 adults and 13600 children participated in this work. .

Practical work of the WCU helps to identify the problems of implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. By analyzing and discussing these drawbacks we try to formulate recommendation and advocate for changes in the state policy for children.

In order to push for changes in the state policy the WCU also initiate the discussion of children rights in the parliamentary committees, fulfill legislative analyses, facilitate broad discussions of changes that may effect children.

Solving the problem of violence at school In 2009 the WCU conducted the analyses of how teachers and students take and identify the problem of violence.

The conclusions of the study have shown that the majority of children face violence at school environment while teachers not always have skills of solving this problem and therefore require for the support in these skills development.

The WCU therefore implements systematic work in training specialists working with children (teachers, psychologists, social workers etc.) to be more effective in solving violence in children’s environment.

The study conducted as a result of this work has shown that level of physical violence could be reduced if they show other models of behavior and communication for children.

11

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011 Improving the quality of social and psychological services for children subjected to violence and human trafficking During 2008 – 2009, 56 specialists of four children’s care institutions participated in training and consultation on the following topics: - Child adaptation to the new care institution; - Building of trusting relationships with the child; - Forming child relationships in the collective; - Forming child’s motivation in its various forms; - Forming positive relationships among school staff; - Creating rehabilitation space for the child in a particular institution.

Influence to the state policy in the interest of children Starting from 2005 the WCU annually facilitates organizing discussions on children in the Parliament of Ukraine: we are the initiators and co-organizers of roundtables in the parliamentary committees on different urgent issues in the area of children rights and interests, among them was the conference on the child ombudsperson (in 2006).

Participation of NGOs in the development of legislation for the Children The Women’s Consortium of Ukraine has the experience of lobbing for legal changes.

In 2006 the WCU in cooperated with other NGOs has initiated public discussion of the draft law on National Plan of Actions on Implementation of the CRC in Ukraine (2006 – 2016). As a result 66 comments to the document were passed from the NGOs. The suggestions were sponsored by the people’s deputy, Bohachuk V. In result, 62 suggestions were included in the final document as of June 2008.

Women's Consortium of Ukraine initiated the establishment of the working group by Verhovna Rada Committee for Family, Youth, Sports and Tourism for elaboration of legislative proposals to protect children from violence. As a result of the groups activity the draft law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedural Codes of Ukraine» № 7340 (concerning interrogation procedures juvenile victims and witnesses) was registered in the Parliament. The bill was introduced by MPs - representatives from all five political groups. At the moment the document is under consideration of the parliament.

The WCU fulfill public expertise on how the legislation corresponds with children rights. In 2011 the expert conclusion on the draft of the Criminal Procedure Code’s provisions on the protection of the rights of children victims of crimes was undertaken.

In 2010 the WCU has provided informational support to the process of ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse CETS No.201, which helps to protect children victims of crimes at different stages of criminal procedure. By now the Convention is ratified

by Ukraine, though national legislation still requires for improvement to meet the Convention’s requirements. Конвенції.

Joining the resources of NGOs working for children The Women’s Consortium considers joining resources with other NGOs as a key factor of success. Therefore we try to implement broad awareness raising on our events, to involve more members from NGOs into its events conducted in the parliament, to share its lessons learnt and to learn the experiences of others in the area of children rights and interests of children.

In January 2009 - Women's Consortium of Ukraine held a forum "Children's Rights: 20 years of action”, which was attended by more than 60 organizations. Experiences of monitoring, advocacy campaigns, involvement of children in decision making, provision of social services were shared.

One of the results of the forum was the creation of electronic data distribution on child rights. Electronic distribution allows fast sharing of information. By

12

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011 now the distribution joins 67 representatives of NGOs, international and state institutions. The distribution helps to disseminate the results of legal monitoring conducted by the WCU. In 2011 the WCU become one of the founding member of the Coalition on Children Rights in Ukraine. The key hoal of the Coalition is to facilitate implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The WCU sees the prospects in supporting this Coalition and broadening its membership by involving other NGOs.

Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child WCU together with other NGOs initiated a working group to develop the Alternative Report on Implementation of UN Convention for the Rights of the Child. In November 2009 this report was presented to government authorities, the public and submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for their consideration during the session on the implementation of the Convention in Ukraine.

The initiative group on preparation of the Alternative Report has followed up the process of reporting to the Un Committee, specifically: In June 2010, six representatives of the NGOs working group attended the meeting of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, where they presented their vision on issues of child protection for the Committee experts.

In January 2011 two representatives of the Group participated at the Ukrainian Government reporting session and lobbied for the NGO recommendations. As a result the government had to respond to inconvenient questions prepared by the Group in advance.

As a result, the recommendations prepared by the Group were considered in Concluding observations and recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to Ukraine (2011) At the moment the WCU and other partner NGOs follow-up the implementation of the Concluding observations. For this, the recommendations were translated into Ukrainian and broadly disseminated, specifically in mass media. In April 2011 the discussion on how the government would implement those recommendations have been organized together with the Committee on family, youth, sports and tourism. We also prepared a child-friendly version of the Concluding observations to empower children with the possibility of discussion on their implementation.

In order to implement further systematic work in these regards the NGOs have established the Coalition on Children Rights in Ukraine. One of the key objectives of this Coalition is to implement annual monitoring of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Establishing an Ombudsperson for Children’s Rights in Ukraine WCU facilitated discussion on the establishment of a Children Rights Ombudsperson in line with international standards. In October 2006 an international conference “Lessons Learnt on the Child Ombudsperson: Prospects for Ukraine” was held under support of the Committee on education and science.

Since February to May 2007 an on-line forum was held where participants could receive the conference materials and input their comments on establishment of the Children Rights Ombudsperson.

In 2008, the WCU followed up with the progress of two bills on the Institute of Ombudsman on Children's Rights registered in the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council) of Ukraine. Both bills have been recalled, however, the position of Ombudsman on children’s rights, equality and non-discrimination was established and in August 2011 – they established an institute of the Child’s Rights Representative of the President of Ukraine.

Establishment of these positions, especially the latter one, has helped to broaden discussion on the observation of children rights and promotion of this subject matter in general. At the same time both positions are not protected by the law, thus are not independent. Therefore, the WCU will keep working to make Children Rights Institutions independent.

13

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011

Plans for Future Solving the problem of violence at school In 2012 a series of training for specialists from the institutes of postgraduate training for teachers on «Organization of the work to prevent violence at school» will be organized. As a result of this work representatives from all the institutes will pass through the training and received relevant materials.

The direct work with children in training them life skills will be also conducted. To do so, a group of trainers will be prepared.

Informing children on their rights We publish materials for children to better understand the CRC and see when their rights are violated.

Active participation of the NGOs in the state policy for children The WCU will continue work in strengthening influencing of NGOs the Ukrainian Parliament: we’ll keep following up with the legal initiatives on children and disseminate this information among interested NGO parties, which would facilitate their participation in public discussion and in formulating their position to the people’s deputies.

14

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011

Activity of the Network "Women's Consortium of Ukraine WCU Network is an association of 32 NGOs that implement the idea of gender equality. Each organization is independent and implements activities at its field according to the priorities and needs.

Together, we are joining to affect public policy, drawing attention to human rights violations, monitoring of national gender policy, holding a large-scale information campaigns and lobbying for legislative changes.

Participation in the Network allows us not only to be effective in implementing gender equality, but also to develop our professional level. We systematically exchange of information and lessons learnt; organize training for representative of the members of the Network.

The Network of the WCU is striving for openness and dialogue. We publicize strategy of our work, and report on the results. We are ready to the discussion on the web-pages of the WCU and social networks at Facebook, Twitter and LiveJournal.

2008 • • •

The first three-year strategy of the Network is developed and publicized.

Alternative Report on CEDAW implementation is submitted to the UN. Press-event where the Network draw attention to the women’s rights violations, specifically, at the problem of violence, trafficking in low representation of women in political life, etc.

2009 • • • •

Attention to the issue of sexism in advertising; discussions with producers and owners of advertising.

With the help of gender advisors for governors (the majority of them were our members) we kept on discussion the issues of women’s rights raised in the Alternative Report.

The first annual report of the WCU presented.

We launch our web-site: www.wcu-network.org.ua

2010 • • • •

• •

Awareness raising campaign to draw attention towards the Concluding Observations and Recommendations on CEDAW – press-events, local discussions, etc.

Strengthened cooperation with businesses on combating gender stereotypes in advertising.

Network protest against violence in election campaigns.

Inquiry on women’s attitude towards the increased pension age. The results are passed to the MPs. The Network called on the Parliament to consider the interests of women and not to increase the age of retirement without necessary adjustments at the labor market.

Inquiry of the candidates for the President of Ukraine on how they would see gender equality in the country, thus we draw their attention to the issue of discrimination based on sex.

The web-site of the WCU became on of the biggest resource on gender politics and children rights.

2011 • • •

•

Public monitoring of the State Program on Gender Equality is implemented and presented.

The standards of non-discriminatory advertising are finalized and signed (the WCU is co-authors).

Network protests against the governmental initiative aimed to evaluate the financial background of women receiving governmental support in a discriminatory way. We also drawn attention towards the delays in payment of this support for families with children.

Developed and presented the strategy of the Network for 2012-2015, with the key objectives – to support women’s participation in the decision-making.

Development of the Network • • • • •

Planning of strategies and their publicizing are applied into practice.

The training of the members on using IT resources, e.g. we developed a manual on how to write news GoogleGroup was established to discuss internal issues and make decisions.

The social network pages on the WCU at Facebook, LiveJournal and Twitter were created to make our work public.

The internal evaluation of the Network was organized.

15

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011

Publications and Videos: 2007-2011 Public monitoring of the State program on gender equality in Ukrainian society (till 2010).

The material highlight the level of implementation of the state program in the period of 2006 through 2010.

Establish your own business. The material was prepared for the professionals from the state and nongovernmental organizations dealing with job skills training. It is aimed to be used in working with women planning to change their professional life by establishing their own small business and require informational support and practical hits for this.

Concluding observations and recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (Ukraine, 2011). Child-friendly version – in the publication prepared in winter 2011, the Committee identifies the key violations of the rights of child in Ukraine and issues recommendations on their eliminations. This material is aimed at adolescent children over 14.

Organization of the work in solving violence at school (2011) – the manual was written to spread information on possibilities of systematic training work with children, parents and teachers to prevent violence against children at school. The manual will help teachers, social workers, psychologists and other professionals working with children. The system of training presented in the manual was tested in 20 regional schools when working with the schools’ staff.

Sexism in advertising: its overcoming through self-regulation of the advertising industry organizations (2010) - publication presents analysis of the problem of sexism and gender stereotypes in Ukrainian advertising, and also raises questions about the introducing of self-regulation mechanism by the advertising industry itself, that, according to the authors, one of main ways of dealing with sexism in the Ukrainian advertising.

Refugees from Planet Earth (2010) - publication of children's comics, which make adolescents think about the situation of refugee children and the difficulties they face. Will be helpful in organizing extracurricular discussions on tolerance and intercultural dialogue.

Alternative report on implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child 2002-2008 in Ukraine (2009). The document is prepared by the Initiative group of NGOs, including the Women's Consortium of Ukraine.

Violence in schools: analysis of problems and assistance needed by children and teachers in solving it (2009) - research covered schools in four regions of Ukraine: Vinnitska, Kirovogradska, Kievska and Cherkasska. The objective was to promote a safe environment in schools by introducing new methods of interpersonal communication between children, teachers and parents.

Assessment of material needs of three regional shelters (2009) - study of resources available to support a child in social and psychological rehabilitation centres. This study was undertaken in order to attract additional resources that will improve rehabilitation centres for children.

Improving rehabilitation environment in institutions of social protection for children (2009) – This publication was designed as training materials for specialists who work with children in difficult circumstances.

Topics included: How to work in child care centres; How to establish positive relations between the employees of the institution and children; How to help child - victims of violence using available resources.

Experience of Regional Discussion Clubs on “Stereotypical images of men and women in advertising" (2009) - this brochure, provides information about the phenomena of sexism and gender stereotypes in advertising. It includes a brief analysis of the importance and urgency of the issue for Ukraine and reflects the experience of regional discussion clubs. These became a platform for subsequent discussions at central and regional levels.

16

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011 The Alternative Report on Implementation of CEDAW Convention in Ukraine is a document prepared by non-governmental organizations from 22 regions of Ukraine in respond to the regular report of the State on the level of implementation of the Convention of elimination of all Forms of Violence Against Women in Ukraine. The information is based on the in-depth situational gender analysis of Ukraine with the focus on covering the gaps, not reflected in the State Report, as well as on providing the community with the facts of discrimination and recommendations of the civil society of Ukraine on the elimination of all forms of discrimination.

Handbook for newly elected women deputies in local councils, published on the eve of local and parliament elections in 2006, the brochure gives an idea on how to make work of the local deputy more effective, which is based on the lessons learned by the colleagues in the past.

“Inconvenient Issue”, A series of 12 video programs (2006-2007) dealing with position of women in society, gender stereotyping, domestic violence and others, which have been widely distributed and shown on national and local television.

17

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011

International Participation & Cooperation Second Swedish-Ukrainian seminar "Swedish public education in the gender context", Gothenburg (Sweden), 6-10 June 2011.

In the framework of this seminar 12 representatives of NGOs, also from the WCU, learned the experience of the public education for women in Sweden, methodologies and approaches applied in public education; discussed possible ways of cooperation.

Participation in thesession of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Switzerland, Geneva, 2011. Representative of the WCU participated in the 46 session for observation of the process of reporting by the Government of Ukraine.

Swedish-Ukrainian seminar "Swedish gender approach and education", Ukraine, 2010 The seminar was attended by teachers from the Swedish Women's Popular School and representatives of NGOs, educators and representatives of scientific circles of Ukraine. During the workshop, participants learned about methods of gender mainstreaming in education in Sweden as well as on the activities and methods of Women's popular school.

Participation in the Regional Consultations on the implementation of the Recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in Europe, Poland, Warsaw, 2010 The event was organized by IWRAW Asia-Pacific with KARAT Coalition. During the meeting the sides discussed the identification of barriers of implementation of the UN Committee recommendations and identify areas of advocacy activities of NGOs.

Participation in the meeting of the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Switzerland, Geneva, 2010 Representatives of Women's Consortium of Ukraine presented to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women Alternative report on the implementation in Ukraine the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Ukraine received 53 recommendations, including recommendations proposed by the Network Women's Consortium of Ukraine.

Visit of the Swedish Ombudsman for students Lars Arenius to Kyiv in the framework of the program "Prevention of violence at school", September 2010 The Ombudsman met with the representative of Ombudsman of Ukraine on children's rights, school directors and representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science and shared his experience of implementing the laws of Sweden concerning the prevention of violence among children, develop action plans for combating violence in schools, taking into account the views of children in improving the environment and security in schools. The result of the roundtable was the preparation of an action plan in school on prevention violence among children.

International seminar "Regional network for children and youth on prevention of trafficking in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Africa" in Bansko, Bulgaria 20 - 26 November 2010.

Sixth meeting of European networks that operate in the interests of children, in Florence, Italy, 2022 October 2010, which brought together representatives from most European countries to discuss current issues in child protection.

NGOs informed UN on the Rights of Children. June 14, 2010 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child heard the position of Ukrainian NGOs working for children on the status of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Site Visit of Ukrainian Parliamentarians, Sweden, 2009. The visit was aimed to give an idea on approaches in children rights protection used in Sweden by members of parliament, government, ombudspersons, local authorities and NGOs. It visit was a component of broader initiative aimed to establish Cross Political group on Children Rights in Ukrainian Parliament.

18

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011 International Conference “Youth and Information Communication Technologies” - Challenges and Opportunities ", Sweden, 2009 The conference was attended by international organizations from Sweden, the UK, USA, Baltic States, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. The conference objective – the protection of children from the flow of information coming through the Internet (particularly child sexual abuse). Also identified were organizations that can provide appropriate assistance or help with advice.

Black Sea NGO Forum, 2009 This forum brought together representatives of NGOs from 10 Black Sea region countries to discuss their experience in relaying information to the regional and transnational levels.

IWRAW Asia Pacific, 2009 Drafting Alternative reports on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) and effective participation in Sessions of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

AGAPEDIA Foundation 2008 Study seminar within the tri-lateral project "Enhancing the partnership between NGOs and local authorities from Romania, Moldova and Ukraine to implement the European standards of quality in child protection".

Open World since 2005 WCU acts as a nominee organization for women and community leaders to be able to exchange expertise with their colleagues in the USA. By 2008 more then 30 representatives of WCU and the network have visited the United States. Most of them continues to collaborate with the Network of Global Leadership «Vital Voices».

Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO) is a not-for-profit organization that helps to build self sustaining capacity in developing communities. Cooperation of CESO with WCU started in 2007, when an external evaluation of the organization was performed. As a result the Gender Equality Strategy document was drafted. In 2008 the cooperation continued with discussion of broader technical skills training initiatives which were implemented in 2009.

Baltic Sea Region Mapping Project, November 2006 - October 2007 WCU assisted Svante Weyler, with his report describing cases of children that are trafficked in the Ukraine.

The project was focused on how the authorities and agencies assisted the effected young persons and described what in the system worked and what did not work.

Baltic Sea Region Comprehensive Assistance to Children Victims of Trafficking Training Programme, 2006-2007 WCU together local and international specialists from 12 countries of the Baltic Sea Region, Moldova and Byelorussia, participated in a training program including issues on: o Protective care of children and young persons that have been trafficked o Psychological support to trafficked young persons o Networking and family work with children and young persons victims of trafficking o Children’s participation in shaping their own healing context o Reintegration into society

19

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011

Our Grantors and Donors

Many thanks to these organizations and foundations who have supported and financed our projects and programs during 2007 —2011

BICE

! " # $

%

&

& % %' (%( !

) " * ) +

, %'

Many thanks to these organizations who provided us with services in kind during 2007 –2011 - %

! .

/ !

# % %

! , 0 # &

!

1 ! &! 1

!

$ ! ' & ' &&

20

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011

21

Statement of Grants Received and Expenses* 2007** UAH

2008** UAH

2009** UAH

2010** UAH

2011** UAH

143 543 201 764 97 220

94250

200180

22 897

48349

48150 237654

175 643 15 125

322 368 5 075

831181

427238

1251586

633 295 444590

1079710

713042

1251586

123 797 117 970

776980 217500

670870 229200

921769 230426

626 800 241767

994480

900070

1152195

Grants Received United Nations & Agencies European Union & Agencies U.S.A. Agencies International Foundations & Charities Ukrainian Organizations Total

Expenses Program & Project costs*** Administration

508 595 118 205 Total

6 495

202 823

85230

-187028

99391

12 350 18 845

18 845 221 668

221668 306898

306898 119870

119870 219261

Transfer to Fund Balance Opening Fund balance Closing Fund balance Note:

* The above financial information has been compiled from the Annual Income Tax Report to the Ukraine Government ** Years ending December 31 (unaudited) *** Program & project costs include payments to network members on joint projects Services-in-kind are not valued in the above information

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011 Member Organizations

Board of Directors

“Blagovist�, Sumy Regional Charitable Foundation

Maria Alekseyenko

“Business Initiatives�, Civil Society Center, Ivano-Frankovsk

Chair of the Board

Center for Civil Society Development, Slavutych

Tetyana Bayeva

“Chaika�, Center for support of civil society initiatives, Rivne Suchasnyk Chetnivtsy NGO

Iryna Dorozhkina

Chernigivska Oblast Women’s Union of Ukraine

Liudmyla Horova

Donetsk League of Business and Professional Women

Tetyana Mikhnovets

“Gender Center�, Volyn Regional NGO Faith, Hope, Love, Odessa

Elvira Mruchkovs’ka

Kharkiv Women’s NGO "Krona"

Natalka Samolev’ska

Kharkiv Women’s NGO "Nadia" Khmelnytskiy Raion Association "Svitanok"

Management Staff

“Kolo�, Kirovograd Regional Youth Gender Center Maibuttia, Charity Fund, Lviv Men’s Adaptation Center in Ternopil NGO Nadia NGO, Kyiv region Pani Vsesvit, Vinnitsa NGO Poltavian Business Incubator “Podol Center “Gender Council�, Khmelnitsk NGO Poltava Regional Division of the League of Social Workers of Ukraine Poltava Branch of Social Services of Ukraine

Natalia T

Spivdruzhnist, Simpheropol Women’s Center Successful Woman NGO, Kherson Volynian Prospects NGO “Young Cherkashshyna�, Coalition of Youth NGOs in Cherkassy region “Zhinky Batkivshchyny�, Kyiv Regional NGO and Regional Resource Center Union of non-government organizations „Open society�

Women of Donbass NGO, Luhansk Women’s Informational-Consultation Center "Olvia", Mykolajiv Region Women’s Informational-Consultation Center, Zhytomyr Zaporizhian Women’s NGO "Center of Public and Social Initiatives" Zaporizhian Foundation “Yednist za maibutne�

External Advisors

annual reporting, volunteer advisor of CESO

strategic planning

children's psychiatrist, psychotherapist

editor, journalist

lawyer

!

gender issues

lawyer

" # gender issues and local government

# professional skills

" psychologist

" media, children's participation 23

Annual Report of the Organization 2007Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2011

" social policy issues

children’s rights

24