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Separate Event from Ukraine at Beijing+30: What Was Discussed?

On October 21, the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations in Geneva, in cooperation with the governments of Germany and the United Kingdom, as well as UN Women in Ukraine, organized an event titled “Ensuring Gender Equality in the State During Recovery from Armed Aggression.”

The purpose of the event was to showcase Ukraine’s progress in promoting gender equality during wartime, and to engage partners—governments, international organizations, civil society representatives, and the private sector—in planning specific joint actions for effectively implementing gender policies both now and during post-war recovery.

Gender equality is about protecting the rights and opportunities of both women and men amid significant threats. It includes ensuring access for women to join the armed forces and government structures, as well as the prevention, documentation, and elimination of gender-based violence, perpetrated by both men and women. In times of war, a simple rule prevails: only free people can fight for freedom, which is why gender equality transcends relevance—it is always timely.

The event moderator, Yevheniia Filipenko, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva, opened the event and invited attendees to watch a video message from Kateryna Levchenko, the Government Commissioner for Gender Policy. In her address, Ms. Kateryna highlighted the use of the term “war” in the context of Russia’s aggression and the impact of the war on the rights of women from various groups.

Iryna Postolovska, Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine, spoke about the impact of Russian aggression on women in Ukraine and the measures taken by the Ukrainian government to ensure gender equality during armed aggression, providing examples and lessons learned.

Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Iryna Postolovska. Photo: UN.

Natalia Karbowska, President of Strategic Planning at the Ukrainian Women’s Fund, presented 10 key steps for gender mainstreaming in Ukraine’s post-war recovery, developed by women’s civil society organizations.

Representatives from Germany, the United Kingdom, UN Women, France, and Estonia expressed their support for Ukraine.

From left to right: Natalia Karbowska, Yevheniia Filipenko, and civil society activist Maryna Rudenko.

The side event included a call to engage women with disabilities, women service members, volunteers, migrants, internally displaced women, and older women in dialogue. These voices are crucial for developing policies that address the real needs of the population.

Thanks to Ukraine’s initiative, a joint statement was adopted aiming to end violence against women in the region of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), supported by 41 countries.

The event also featured an art exhibition of posters with artistic depictions and stories reflecting women’s experiences of the war in Ukraine. The exhibition was based on the short prose collection My Women by the Bilka publishing house.

Marina Rudenko presents the book “My Women” to Yevheniya Filipenko and Iryna Postolovska.

The book is illustrated with works created by the artists after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. They supplemented the short stories written by the author with their own personal stories through illustrations, transforming “My Women” into our collective women.