Roundtable on “Mechanisms to Prevent Sexual Discrimination: Options for Ukraine”

On 13 June 2007, a roundtable called “Mechanisms to Prevent Sexual Discrimination: Options for Ukraine” took place in the ICPS Conference Hall. The organizers were the International Centre for Policy Studies (ICPS) and the Center for Ukrainian Reform Education (CURE). The goal of this roundtable was to present a Green Paper called “Mechanisms to Prevent Sexual Discrimination: Options for Ukraine” and to determine the positions of stakeholders regarding the options for improving mechanisms for preventing sexual discrimination.

Project Manager Olha Romanyuk considers this issue very important and urgent, as there are no effective mechanisms against sexual discrimination in Ukraine. As a result, victims of discrimination are unable to protect themselves. Sometimes, they do not even realize that their rights are being violated.

During the roundtable, ICPS specialist Oleksandr Tatarevskiy made a presentation called “Sexual Discrimination: How to counteract it.” He outlined the main reasons why victims of such discrimination are vulnerable and proposed options for eliminating them.

In addition, participants discussed these issues:

• How to simplify the legal mechanisms for protecting victims of discrimination?
• What are the best options for improving institutions to counteract sexual discrimination? 
• How can extrajudicial (administrative) procedures for protecting victims of discrimination be improved?
• How can the observance of legislative norms (penalties, compensation, information and public awareness campaigns) be ensured?

In the course of the discussion, participants were able to tentatively identify administrative and legislative levers that might be applied by the state to protect victims of discrimination and to reduce the incidence of gender discrimination.

The discussants at this roundtable included top specialists in gender issues: Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports specialist and UNDP Equal Opportunities Program specialist Tamara Melnyk; UNDP Equal Opportunities Program Director Larysa Kobelyanska; Gender Issues Coordinator for the Parliamentary Development Project (PDP) Olena Suslova; Rozrada International Humanitarian Center Director Valentyna Bondarovska; Chemical Dependence and AIDS Prevention Fund representative Natalia Lukianova; and Committee for Human Rights, National Minorities and Inter-Ethnic Relations Secretariat Deputy Chair Alla Chyhyryn.

This roundtable is a one of the series of discussions organized as part of the “Policy Campaign to Promote Gender Equality in Ukraine” project. The next step will be to develop the concept for a bill to regulate the protection of victims of discrimination and prevent sexual discrimination. This concept will be the main topic at the next roundtable.