Yuliia Lykhach, Director of the High School of Public Governance, took part in a meeting of the co-chairs of the subgroups of the Interagency working group on combating sexual violence related to Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine and providing assistance to victims, which was held on May 18 under the chairmanship of Kateryna Levchenko, Government Commissioner for Gender Policy.

The participants of the meeting discussed the format of the Interagency Working Group meeting, the draft program, and the issues to be included in the agenda.

Among other things, it is planned to create the 6th subgroup “Training of Specialists” within the Interagency Working Group, which aims to ensure the development and conduct of unified trainings for training specialists on the topic of sexual violence in accordance with the tasks of the Implementation Plan for the implementation of the Framework Agreement on Cooperation between the Government and the UN System to prevent and combat sexual violence related to Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine and provide assistance to victims.

The High School of Public Governance will become one of the coordinators of the subgroup.

The High School of Public Governance will become one of the coordinators of the subgroup.

In 2022, following the order of the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, a working group was established at the NAUCS to develop a model GSPDP for public servants and local government officials on proper response to conflict-related sexual violence. The working group has developed the first model training program, “Identifying and Responding to Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Assisting Victims.” Last year, 98 people were trained under the program, including representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Social Policy, the National Social Service, the National Police, the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, the Coordination Center for Legal Aid, and the Kyiv, Lviv, Vinnytsia, and Ivano-Frankivsk regional military administrations.

In 2023, the High School of Public Governance plans to train a pool of trainers in responding to cases of sexual and gender-based violence and providing assistance to victims. Currently, together with UN Women in Ukraine, the Dr. Mukwege Foundation, and the Ukrainian Bar Association, JurFem has developed a draft of a general short-term training program for trainers, Training Technologies for Responding to Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Assisting Victims.

Work is also underway to develop an online course on identifying and responding to cases of sexual violence for public officials. 

The course will be publicly available on the educational platform of the High School.