At UN, Ukrainian delegation discusses gender policy in the context of recovery

Kateryna Levchenko, deputy head of the delegation and government commissioner for gender policy, told Ukrinform in a commentary.

“We wanted to convey the importance of ensuring women's participation in recovery processes. Because there will be no effective recovery that is not based on the principles of inclusion and gender equality,” she said.

According to Levchenko, the delegation also highlighted instances of war-related social violence and presented a project on urgent interim reparations at the events during the session.

"One of our tasks was to keep the issue of Ukraine in the focus of the work of UN Women and other structures involved in the organization of this event," the government commissioner said.

Levchenko noted that this year's session focuses on economic issues in the context of gender policy. "We realized that without such basic concepts as economics and finance, it is difficult to talk about women's participation in politics and decision-making, and about combating various forms of violence," she said, explaining that women suffer more from violence in poverty.

"The session addressed this issue in the context of the need to overcome the phenomenon of feminization of poverty," the official added.

She noted that women's rights and gender equality are now "a cross-cutting issue in various policy areas, not just social policy" and that "women's rights must be taken into account in all policies".

In addition to official events within the framework of the session, the members of the Ukrainian delegation held many bilateral meetings. And not only with representatives of UN structures, but also with the heads of delegations of Denmark, Sweden, Chile, Liechtenstein, Paraguay, Australia, France, and Norway.

According to Levchenko, the Ukrainian delegation consisted of government officials and representatives from NGOs, including victims of war-related violence.

As Ukrinform reported, the 68th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women began on March 11 and will last until March 22. This year's priority theme is "Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective ".

The Cabinet of Ministers notes that the purpose of the Ukrainian delegation's participation in the session is to "confirm the priority of the course towards European integration, strengthening social justice and gender equality in Ukrainian society, empowering women and girls in public life by overcoming poverty and strengthening institutions aimed at preventing gender-based violence."