[Brussels, 4 March 2022] Following a webinar held on 3 March with the National Council of Women of Ukraine, the European Women’s Lobby endorsed its Statement calling on EU leaders and the international community to include women at every stage of the processes to strive for peace in Ukraine.
To this end, it calls on the EU to set up immediately an inter-institutional task force and include women’s civil society to ensure that the voices on the ground are heard, consulted and shape current and post conflict solutions. It calls on the international community to fully implement UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, to finance and facilitate Ukrainian women now to prepare and include them at earliest stage. The restricted webinar was organised to provide a safe space for women in Ukraine. The raw reality of the war was echoed loudly. It also provided practical steps that can be taken now. These include humanitarian aid to ensure a supply of food, medicines and medical supplies, power bank with solar batteries, safe passage within and from the country and networks of solidarity with women’s organisations in the surrounding and other countries. It is expected that up to 4 million people will flee Ukraine, the majority of whom are women and children. It is urgent that all measures are taken to prevent the sexual exploitation of women and girls who could fall prey to unscrupulous trafficking networks and pimps. We have seen the EU and Member States step up, ready to safeguard democratic rights and values. Equality between women and men is at the core of this and therefore we will keep the pressure up. EWL President, Réka Sáfrány, stressed that conflict and war throughout the world is the ultimate expression of patriarchy and calls for a new world order with women in the driving seat. “We stand in solidarity with women in Ukraine and with all women and girls impacted by conflict and war in the world.” Read the full Statement here.
