Contributed by: Halyna Fedkovych, Ukraine National VAW Monitor

The project will be implemented in the Lviv, Rivne, Zhutomyr and Vinnytsja regions of Ukraine.

Representatives of the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports, Ministry of Internal Affairs, local governments and NGO from the target regions took part in the three-day seminar.

The Chief of the subdivision of the Department of Public Safety at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Valery Brizhik stated that there are over 85 thousand persons who committed violence in the family and who are registered by the police now. 63,3 thousand persons who committed violence in the family were registered last year. Over 76 thousand official warnings and over 6 thousand protective orders were issued. Administrative sanctions were applied to almost 89 thousand persons for committing violence in family. He also mentioned that there is very little prevention work among the population concerning violence in family conducted, especially in rural areas. In his opinion, the majority of domestic violence take place in rural areas, because there is only one district police officer working in a few villages, and he is not able to work out all problems, especially violence in family. The other important problem is that woman-victims of violence in a family must communicate with male police officers.

Alla Taran, Vice-Director of the Department of Family and Gender Policy at the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport said that the main reasons of violence in families are social factors, such as drug addiction, alcoholism, as well as economic - unemployment and psychological factors. "It happens often, that a woman who suffered violence in a family has to continue to live together with the perpetrator because of a lack of separate housing. And it is a problem," Alla Taran resumed.

Compiled from: UNIFEM Trust Fund Grantees, January 29, 2007,
More than 85 thousands persons are registered in Ukraine for accomplishing violence in a family, Lviv Portal, January 17, 2007