The Coordination Council for the Prevention and Combating of Domestic Violence and Gender-Based Violence has been launched in Chernihiv

On March 14, the first meeting of the Coordination Council on the Prevention and Counteraction to Domestic Violence and Gender-Based Violence was held in Chernihiv. It was established in accordance with the order of the Secretary of the Chernihiv City Council. The same document approved its personal composition and Regulations on it.

The Coordination Council was established to ensure interagency cooperation, coordinate measures in the field of prevention and counteraction to domestic violence and gender-based violence, and increase their effectiveness.

– We have set the main goal of coordinating our work, because the issue of violence is not an issue for the Children’s Service, the Education Department, the Health Department, or exclusively the police. Unfortunately, this issue concerns everyone, and we do not know where it may “shoot” tomorrow. Therefore, thanks to the coordination of all our actions, I hope we will have a positive result, – emphasized during the meeting the deputy mayor and head of the Coordination Council Viktoriya Pekur.

The Coordination Council includes a total of 19 representatives of city structures, including heads of the city council departments: education; health care; family, youth and sports; (service) for children; of the city center of social services and the department of social policy, as well as representatives of law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, public organizations and other services whose work is aimed at the social protection of the rights of the family, children and women.

During the meeting, Victoria Pekur recalled that since May, Chernihiv has joined the UNFPA project “Cities and Communities Free from Domestic Violence”, which is funded by the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine.

– Today, the system for preventing domestic violence in Ukraine, which has existed for the previous 16 years, has been significantly improved, taking into account both positive and negative dynamics. But there are still many issues that need to be discussed. Currently, the main issue is the victim’s awareness of whether she is ready to admit that she is a victim, as well as to put an end to the violence that she receives mostly in the family once and for all. In addition, there is currently no perfect legislation on working with abusers, – the deputy mayor noted.

The Coordination Council, in accordance with the tasks assigned to it, will, in particular, determine priority areas of work on issues of social and psychological support for victims, as well as the provision of medical and legal assistance. It will also implement recommendations and an algorithm for interaction between subjects when responding to cases of domestic violence in the territory of the Chernihiv urban territorial community.

The representative of the Department of Family, Youth and Sports of the City Council, Viktoria Tymchenko, who is responsible for combating domestic violence in the city of Chernihiv, reported that in 2022, 549 cases of domestic violence were recorded, and in 2023 – 1811 cases.

The coordinator of the mobile team of socio-psychological assistance to persons who have suffered from domestic violence and/or gender-based violence, Olena Nadtochiy, spoke about the Joint Action Plan – a strategy for building a system to combat domestic violence, which includes four stages: prevention (prevention of the phenomenon), protection of the victim, provision of quality services, holding perpetrators accountable and changing their behavior.

If someone has encountered violence (physical, sexual, psychological or economic) – they need to seek help.

Press Service of Chernihiv City Council