About 570 reports of domestic violence are registered daily in Ukraine - Prosecutor General

This is reported by the Prosecutor General's Office.

The event was held in the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishina and with the participation of the wife of the president of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska.

Participants of the meeting discussed the fight against domestic violence. In particular, the best practices of the strategic session on countering gender-based violence, in particular domestic violence, "counteraction-joint action", which was held at the initiative of the First Lady, were presented.

"It is the current strategy that will allow us to synergistically unite the efforts of stakeholders and create a guide to common tasks and actions. The number of complaints about domestic violence is growing rapidly every year: 140 thousand in 2019, more than 200 thousand against the background of quarantine restrictions in 2020. 86% of complaints come from women, 12% from men and 2% from children. More and more victims refuse to remain silent and hide "family secrets" under seven seals. Every day, law enforcement officers register about 570 messages from victims of violence," Iryna Venediktova said.

The Prosecutor General noted that countering domestic and gender-based violence has been identified as one of the priorities of the prosecutor's office's work, and systematic activities in this area have begun.

"According to the UN, every second murder is committed by a family member or former partner. Therefore, today prosecutors conduct audits of criminal proceedings related to domestic violence, but for some reason, they are not qualified on this basis. In addition to international institutions, public organizations use invaluable information, and we have started working closely with them. This allows you to get data about the most pressing problems and quickly respond to them. And the coordinators of the non-governmental sector already know who to contact if there are problems during the pre-trial investigation," Iryna Venediktova added.

She also said that the segment of crimes related to domestic violence is so significant and special that it is planned to introduce the specialization of prosecutors. Appropriate standards will be developed for their activities, compliance with which will become mandatory, and in the training courses of the Training Center for Prosecutors of Ukraine, the gender component will become mandatory for all prosecutors.

"Domestic and gender-based violence is a public problem, and the ratification of the Istanbul Convention is an important step for Ukraine to apply all mechanisms to protect individuals from violence. I signed the official position of the prosecutor general's office regarding the absence of any obstacles to launching this procedure. I am convinced that to implement our plans, we need, in particular, a powerful information campaign. It is necessary to convey to society the thesis: stop tolerating violence!" said the prosecutor general.

The commission also presented a roadmap for improving the work of the government hotline 15-47 on preventing domestic violence, human trafficking and gender discrimination. In addition, the participants discussed the creation of specialized support services for victims and the further development of shelters for them at the expense of a state subvention.